As your local councillors we are regularly reporting blocked gullies and drains across our area to make sure that we don’t see severe flooding which is currently happening in so many places.

Its never possible to protect against flooding everywhere. (Although not building a headquarters on a flood plain would help – Take note Labour!)

Last week I had to deal with a blocked drain in Newton Hall after a resident complained that repeated requests for action to the Council had failed, since well before lockdown.

The site on Canterbury Road is prone to flooding so this was critical. All credit to the Tech Services team at DCC who responded very quickly and are also checking why this fell thorugh the cracks.

If you spot anywhere where drains are blocked please report them straight away to the council on help@durham.gov.uk .

Last nights flooding on Abbey Road has also been reported. We have asked for details of when the gullies are cleaned out across our area. The council reduced clearing out for most drains to every 24 months, which we feel is way too long, especially for areas with trees and flood risks, so we are reviewing our area to make sure that flood prone areas get gullies cleaned more frequently.

The ones in the dip of Canterbury Road for example are only done once every two years, at the moment to the best of our knowledge leaves fall off most trees each year, not every other year!

Cutting back cleaning to every two years ends up costing the council more money in the long term as compacted blocked gullies take far far longer to clean out and flooding costs the Council, Fire brigade and householders an enormous amount.