Hemel road still flooding despite pensioner campaigning for 30 years for it to be fixed

A pensioner from Hemel Hempstead says that he wants something done about persistent flooding that has been going on for 30 years.

Patrick Hughes, who has lived in Felden Lane for 45 years, has called on the leader of Hertfordshire County Council Richard Roberts to do something about the flooding on London Road - between the junction of London Road and the railway bridge.

He said: “The bus stops on both sides of the road are unusable when it floods, on the Meadow Way side the waiting point becomes an island.”

A Hertfordshire County Council spokesperson said: “Our crews cleared out most of the drains in this area on 28 October, and the remaining drains on Meadow Way will be cleared before Christmas, however, when there is a period of heavy rain, as we have seen in recent days, the ground can become saturated and drainage systems can be temporarily overwhelmed.”

But Patrick says that there is no point in unblocking the drains. He explained: “The fact is there are not enough of them and those that are there are woefully inadequate."

The spokesperson added: “We’d encouraged residents to report blocked drains or flooding on its online fault reporting system at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/highwayfaults where you can also see how recently each drain has been cleaned. Even if we can’t fix the problem straight away, we can use the information to help us plan our future work programmes.”