Every drain blocked!

Junction with Princes Street

A few weeks ago, a neighbour mentioned to me that he'd seen several blocked grids in Oulton Road. A couple of days ago I noticed the one opposite our house was well and truly full of mud and silt and reported it to Staffordshire Highways through the FixMyStreet website.

So today, after a rather wet night, I thought I'd take a special interest in the grids down the road as I walked into town. I was amazed to find that every grid from our house down to Stonefield Square is full of silt and overflowing. I have taken a photograph of each one and reproduce a few here.

Opposite ABB entrance

The big worry here is that if we have any prolonged heavy rain the water in the gutters will rush straight down the road over the grids and end up flooding Stonefield Square or Cross Street again. We've had floods in both these areas in the last few years and the occupiers of the terraced houses in Cross Street will be in despair if their premises are flooded for a third time.

Above York Street junction

We've always had a problem with lack of gulley emptying in Oulton Road but the problem appears to have been exacerbated by silt and mud being brought onto the road by the building development going on up the road opposite the entrance to Alleynes School. Occasionally the builders have  employed a road sweeper machine to keep the road clean but inevitably rain has washed a lot of debris into the grids.

Opposite Cross Street junction

I just hope we don't have a downpour before something is done to rectify the problem. I've reported the problem again on FixMyStreet and highlighted the problem on Twitter and on Facebook. Let's hope we see some action soon!