Residents' flooding fears over water from school

A group of residents said their gardens are repeatedly flooded by water running off from a nearby school.

A sloped playing field at Arden Forest Primary School, Warwickshire, which backs onto the properties on Mersey Road in Bulkington, has caused them major problems, they said.

One of them, Neil Checkling, told BBC CWR he had lived in the area for more than three decades and had never seen anything like it until recently.

He said the school told him it was a county council issue - the local authority said the school's storm drains were checked and working correctly but promised to investigate further.

Mr Checkling said he was now facing a bill for thousands of pounds to create new drainage in his garden to clear the water but believed he should not be liable for the cost.

“We haven't got that sort of money with the cost of living going up like it is,” he said.

Mr Checkling said he had been forced to put sandbags outside his door to stop the water flowing towards his house.

“It's been like a waterfall really, it's literally coming straight down the garden and it collects up, right at the bottom, by the back of my patio door,” he added.

He estimated the water was sometimes about 7.5cm (three inches) in depth.

“I can't get out my back door it's that bad,” he said.

While the storm drains at the school were checked and were working fine, a solicitor for the county council, in a statement, said a large amount of recent rain meant the ground was saturated.

“Even the most well-designed and properly functioning of drainage systems cannot always prevent rainwater moving downhill in such circumstances,” they said.

They added the school was not automatically liable for the flooding unless they were negligent in some way.

“Legalities aside, the county council, as a responsible council and landowner, is investigating the matter further and establishing whether any particular works might help the residents of Mersey Road and if so, whether such measures are affordable in the current financial climate," they said.

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