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01
May
Harrogate woman in battle to prevent her home flooding again
A Harrogate woman is dreading the next spell of wet weather after her home flooded during a storm and her insurance premiums rocketed five-fold.
Diana Fraser, who lives on Plompton Drive off Hookstone Chase, fears her home may be inundated again because a drainage problem she believes caused flooding has not yet been rectified.
Last May, a flash flood swept into Ms Fraser’s home, causing more than £30,000 of damage. Carpets, furniture, and even her son’s drumkit had to be thrown out.
She said:
It was awful. There was about 5-6cm of dirty, smelly water in the kitchen, and everything was ruined. I had to get rid of my dining table and chairs, sofas, fridge-freezer – almost everything.
We had six months of upheaval and had to live upstairs while the plaster was taken off the walls and everything dried out. It was like living in a building site.
To add insult to injury, my house insurance used to cost £300; now it costs £1,500.
I’m losing value on my house, too. Who’s going to buy it, knowing that it was flooded last year, and that there’s been no resolution yet?
When the waters had receded it was clear the flooding had taken its toll.
Blocked gully
The flooding also affects her neighbour, Steve Carter, whose garden was also flooded, and Taylors of Harrogate, whose car park turns into a torrent in heavy rain.
Ms Fraser believes that the cause of the problem is a blocked gully, and has been asking North Yorkshire Council to investigate.
She said:
The gullies on Hookstone Chase outside Taylor’s of Harrogate’s car-park are visibly blocked, so any rainwater is rushing down into Taylor’s car park, gathering speed past their building, and gushing down into my and my neighbour’s back gardens. The result: flooded house, garages and gardens.
Mr Carter added:
It’s a disgrace! It’s perfectly clear that the drainage along Hookstone Chase, directly outside Taylor’s car park, is woefully inadequate.
Chris Briscoe, group property services manager for Bettys & Taylors Group, said:
Bettys & Taylors owns the former Topseal site on Hookstone Chase and, like some of our neighbours in the area, we are aware of some flooding issues that have occurred during heavy rain in recent months.
We have reported this to North Yorkshire Council highways and we hope to see a successful resolution to the problem as soon as possible.
Mr Carter's garden developed a new 'pond'.
Complaints
The matter was injected with a new sense of urgency when heavy rain last month flooded her garden again, so Ms Fraser, Mr Carter, and Taylors of Harrogate all filled in council complaint forms.
Ms Fraser said:
[The council] said they would check the gullies, and if there was a major problem, they would get their engineers to come and fix it. But they didn’t get back to me after that, so I called them and they said the gully had been checked, and that the case had been closed.
The highways department said they prioritise work according to the ‘level of risk to road-users'. But in this case we’re householders, not road-users, so if that’s what they go on, this isn’t going to be treated very urgently, is it? Our concern doesn’t fit their criteria.
She said that Yorkshire Water had tested the pipes underground with cameras and green colouring, and that Northern Powergrid had visited too, due to concerns about the water levels near one of its electricity substations.
Ms Fraser, who is a primary school teacher, has also looked into what she herself can do to stop the water from coming into her property. She said:
There are sandbags, but they’re very heavy to be lugging around. You can also get gel-filled bags that expand when they’re wet, but they’re single-use and very expensive.
I’ve even had a quote for £18,000 to build a specially reinforced wall at the end of my garden, but I haven’t gone ahead with it – it might not be effective, and besides, none of this is my fault!
I pay my rates like everyone else – it doesn’t seem fair.
Council will act
The Stray Ferret contacted North Yorkshire Council to ask what action it was taking. A spokesperson told us that the council last checked the nearby gullies and drains on March 25 – three days after the last flood – and said that “investigations are ongoing”.
North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said:
We are investigating the issues raised in the complaints with other organisations including Yorkshire Water and will respond directly to the customers. We take all complaints seriously and will act if required.
In the meantime, the gullies along Hookstone Chase from the roundabout near Morrisons to beyond the turning to Plompton Drive will be jetted and cleared within the next two weeks.
In the meantime, Ms Fraser is hoping the current spell of sunny weather will continue. She said:
North Yorkshire Council said the flash flood was an unusual occurrence, but it’s not these days, is it? We’ve had two within 12 months now. I feel like a sitting duck.
According to the Met Office, the long-range forecast for the next two weeks is "mainly dry" at first, with a chance of "showers or longer spells of rain" later on, mainly in the north of the UK.
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