Worried residents 'fighting a losing battle’ with worsening flooding on Hemel Hempstead road

Residents living on a Hemel Hempstead road are worried about their houses whenever it rains – saying flooding has gotten progressively worse.

Homeowners living between two slopes on Belswains Lane say the drains cannot cope and it floods when rain falls. And they claim their requests for the council to resolve the issue have come to nothing, with one team visiting the wrong address to look at the floods.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We’ve had a number of flood-related enquiries in this area during the recent period of intense rainfall and we are investigating the situation.”

It added: “The highway drains in the dip of the road were cleaned out in the summer, but when there is a period of heavy rain, as we have seen in recent weeks, the ground can become saturated and drainage systems can be temporarily overwhelmed, and we believe that is what has happened in Belswains Lane.”

At the end of October, the rain was so heavy that Keta Harry, a resident of 12 years, had rainwater moving down her driveway and into her garage and office space. Keta said: “We’re now getting to the point where we've got sandbags outside. Every time it rains, I constantly fear about what's happening when I'm not around.”

She added: “When it rains, my son’s like ‘Mummy, our house will get flooded.’”

This is a worry shared by Karen, another homeowner on the road. She is not sleeping because of the damage she fears more rain could cause.

Karen said: “I had my husband wake up in the middle of the night to go downstairs to check with any water seep through and it hadn’t, but that's not the point. That's not how you should be sleeping.”

The concerned people living along Belswains Lane have tried to get the matter resolved by councillors and Sir Mike Penning MP, but so far they say nothing has happened.

Karen explained: “I don't recall anybody coming round to unblock it. And the worst of the matter is that cars are still speeding down here.”

For Mick Kelly, the excess water has caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage to his property, with the flooding raising his driveway and leaving four inches of residue on the brickwork. Mick has his mother-in-law staying with him, who he fears would not be able to leave the house if flood water rose further.

He said: “It’s Catch-22 and this has been going on for years. It's got worse since they've resurfaced the road because the road is now higher. We're just fighting a losing battle.”

Hertfordshire County Council spokesperson said: “We are arranging to carry out a CCTV survey of the highways drains and we will fix any issues we find.

“We’d encourage residents to report blocked drains or flooding on our 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.

“If flooding is affecting people’s homes, they can report it to us at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/flooding where there is also advice on protecting your home.”