Forum for residents of St Georges Park and Long Leys Road Lincoln

[iggy]

i would just like to remind people that at the bottom of the hilside there used to be a drainage trench to stop the run off water flooding the hospital .while watching dw homes landscaping [[joke]] out side my house when we moved in they dug the ditch out and put a gravel french drain in insted this is great to soak up the ground water but not the the run off in a storm if you had damaged caused today it may be worth letting d w homes know

[Kay Rowntree]

Whilst I don't appear to have had a problem with my property, I was concerned that the drains weren't coping still. Even after all the work done at the Long Leys / Carram Way junction, there was still bubbling over of water and possibly toilet paper! at this junction. There was also alot of surface water that didn't appear to have anywhere to go. This is a public health issue. Does anyone know who it needs reporting too? Come on Shippo - fill your boots - if you don't know - you will know a man that does!!

Please don't take that the wrong way - I appreciate the wealth of information you bring.

Kay

[SteveW]

For the last five years, everytime there is a planning application, Zoe Staton sends out information and requires letters of objection/comments.
Each time I have sent her the same response that it is my belief the existing infrastructure cannot cope with these and future demands. You can put as many new drains as you like around the estate but eventually they will flow into the existing drain down hill, ie Long Leys Road. This is where the problem occurs. So in reponse to your question Kay, probably the Planning Office would be a good place to start, as unless they have been ignoring my comments, at least they should know of the problem.

Having said all that, most people who work in that department give me the impression they about as usefull as ashtrays on motorbikes!!!!!!!!!!

[geoffreybrooking]

Whilst I don't appear to have had a problem with my property, I was concerned that the drains weren't coping still. Even after all the work done at the Long Leys / Carram Way junction, there was still bubbling over of water and possibly toilet paper! at this junction. There was also alot of surface water that didn't appear to have anywhere to go. This is a public health issue. Does anyone know who it needs reporting too? Come on Shippo - fill your boots - if you don't know - you will know a man that does!!

Please don't take that the wrong way - I appreciate the wealth of information you bring.

Kay

I have just sent this e mail to Yvonne Bodger who is the portfolio holder for Environment at City Hall.

Dear Yvonne,

I have had a report and am very concerned that the drains are not coping very well at the Long Leys / Carram Way junction in Carholme.

I understand that there was still bubbling over of water and possibly toilet paper yesterday at this junction.

There was also alot of surface water that didn't appear to have anywhere to go.

This is a public health issue.

Is there any chance you can get someone to look into this for the residents please?

Kindest Regards.

Geoffrey.

Anyone who would like to get directly in touch with Yvonne can do so at the following e mail address:

yvonne.bodger@lincoln.gov.uk

Hope this helps.

[iggy]

unless you stop this run off water at the top of the site you will always have problems at the bottom of the site as the drainage system is not designed to take that amount of water .my i ask for somebody from the LLRA to contact dw homes and lincoln city council and ask how and WHEN they are going to sort this problem and yes kay it was raw waste what you saw i would have hoped DW HOMES would have cleaned it up today but i see not

[john shipton]

Hmm...the amount of water surface whenever there has been a storm or high levels of rainfall has always been a problem on the St Georges site when it was a medical hospital and now an housing estate.
My wife was an SRN at St Georges Hospital before the NHS transfered the medical wards to Lincoln County Hospital. Her care of the elderly ward was put right in the middle of the maternity wing housed in the large high rise building containing the block of wards facing Greetwell Road (this is the type of logic of the management system that runs and controls the County Hospital). You cannot miss this building for it has a mobile phone antenna/s right on top of the building.
Residents already know why St Georges Hospital was closed...to save money and to rationalise the NHS in Lincoln. The result has been obscure and is a warning when the management system is still in the red to the tune of tens of millions of pounds since St Georges Hospital was sold off to make way for private housing. Hence the planning application granted by Lincoln City Council for our so-called Urban Village.
When the wards were at St Georges Hospital, the main building had a long corrider. Blankney Ward was one of a number of wards going off from this corrider. This corridor went quite a way going up hill from the main entrance. The biggest problem this corridor experienced was whenever there was heavy rain, water literally ran down this corridor because there was an insufficient drainage system or outlet to deal with excess water. The NHS Trust Hospital management knew about this but there was no funds available to rectify the situation. And of course, the NHS staff were forewarned a few years before that the hospital was closing down taking many of its medical facilities to the County Hospital.
The junction at the bottom end of Carram Way/ Long Leys Road with the entrance to Carholme Court has been facing flooding since it was built. There were two occassions when the drainage system there had to be looked at by Henry Boot/David Wilson Homes because of the problem of excess surface water. One was about five years ago when Anglian Water was called in to look at water not draining away sufficiently and leaving large amounts of water at this junction. The other was when residents had their brick built bus shelter demolished because the main water pipe which feeds the city of Lincoln, had the road surface over it strenghened to avoid the heavy traffic which now uses Long Leys Road rupturing and damaging the main feeding pipe.
The contractors which were employed by David Wilson Homes, had to change the most of the pipe gauge down Carram Way for surface water which leads into the main one on Long Leys Road, the reason being...wait for this...because the incorrect piping gauge had been put in. That is why it took so long for the work commissioned there to be completed. The site foreman told this to residents who were making enquiries, this includes myself. No one would have been the wiser if enquiries had not been made. The connecting pipe work system from St Georges is in the middle of the road between the footpaths at this junction when it was covered up by the new road surface which was laid down afterwards.
Now going back to the recent heavy rain, St Georges Park has yet to be adopted. If the problem is persisting, surely this cannot go ahead? Both City Council and County Council must look into why the junction is flooding and the drainage system that has been put in place. This includes the top end of the road leading to where the steps to Higson Road are, and that should include the layout of the drives and drainage laid down by the developer nearby.
Regarding the junction, can both residents and the LLRA contact Dave Underwood, the Highways Officer for Long Leys Road and St Georges Park, who works for County Hall. He was involved with Westleys Croft adoption. Planning at City Council should be appoached too as they approved the planning application, its layout and so forth for St Georges Park. Can Anglian Water be involved as well for their expertise on water and drainage. This may include sewage if there is a problem occurring.
All of our councillors should be informed of these problems and let them get involved in finding solutions. For they represent its residents and should be working for them.
Lets work together to sort this one out and get the action and solutions needed regarding the drainage system. And don't allow the developer/developers bypass the situation by saying nothing can be done.
I hope people can see the picture about it all. I have tried my best to relay what has happened.
Can anyone else who has the community spirit come up with further details and what needs to be done!

[iggy]

thanks john every thing you say is correct i will contact dw homes about it can you or the LLRA please contact the city / county and local members as they will no return mail from me. as this is a major problem for us all the builder has just left site and wheh more houses are added it can only get worse this time it was a few garages two houses and a lot of gardens and oh so close to being possible 15 more houses if it had rained for 5 min more

[RevPete]

I have informed our councillors at both city and couty level of this issue, I'll let you know when I know more.

One councillor from each level of local government will be at the Open Meeting tomorrow evening at 6:30 at the Pyewipe - so why not be there?

Pete

[deb]

Noticing that all the gutter open drains were FULL of road debris on Carram and up Manrico due to the planing machine scraping the road tops off, I spoke to the gangs who tell me that after they've done their bit, the 'iron gangs' arrive and part of their job is to clear the drains completely. May well be the cleanest they've been since I moved in! Although it will undoubtedly help with clearing 'normal' rain water, as someone has already said, the main drain itself is the one that is not coping.

[geoffreybrooking]

I have informed our councillors at both city and couty level of this issue, I'll let you know when I know more.

One councillor from each level of local government will be at the Open Meeting tomorrow evening at 6:30 at the Pyewipe - so why not be there?

Pete

Hope your meeting at the Pyewipe goes well - apologies for not being there - busy down south!

[iggy]

another storm and long leys flooded again almost all the way over from kerb to kerb. it wont be long before there is an accident at this point . so may i say should the council not be asked to put up signs warning the road is liable to flooding and a public health risk
I SAY AGAIN NO MORE CONNECTIONS TO THIS DRAIN TILL IT SORTED
NO MORE HOUSES TO BE CONNECTED UNTIL IT HAS BEEN SORTED

[john shipton]

The storm last night was tremendous and very powerful. The heavy rain began to fall soon after leaving the LLRA general meeting late evening. The grey sky became greyer. It then became dark. Then onto becoming black. Soon afterwards the fireworks began to explode across the sky resulting in thunder and forked lightning.
Parts of Long Leys Road were flooded during the heavy rain pouring down from the skies. The storm then took effect.
The result is what happened yet again at the junction of Carram Way/Long Leys Road...flooded with manhole covers having water pouring out from them and the drains themselves along Carram Way were overflowing. Other parts on Long Leys Road were flooded too.
Now what with global warming, more storms and heavy rainfalls yet to occur in 2007 and this affecting the water drainage system on St Georges Park, all responsible for the fiasco over our Urban Village should be made accountable and responsiblity taken.
It took local residents to report matters in the last few years regarding flooding at this junction. The piping gauge was found to be too small to cope with the water flow. The system is still not coping. Having seen the drains yesterday before the meeting, they were full and a couple still had rubble in them.
Powers that be knew about the drainage problem when St Georges was still a hospital. This information was passed on but appears to have been ignored until now.
Both County Council and City Council were told about the flooding problem at this junction. Both developers knew about it too. And Anglian Water know about the connection problem from Carram Way to Long Leys Road and that the Long Leys Road pipe for surface water/drainage system has not to have been updated and unable to cope with the water flow.
I agree with what Ian has mentioned about no more connecting pipe work to the Carram Way drainage system.
It is a good job that residents have their own LLRA. But local residents need to work with LLRA to get issues resolved which affect the Long Leys Road area.
So please play your part and get stuck in, especially regarding the flooding which is now regularly happening after heavy rainfalls and stormy weather!

[deb]

Numbers given out at the Open Meeting:

'What to do' 08459881188
'Emergency Helpline' 0845 7145145

We are told to use the latter number WHILE it's raining, drains flooding, manholes lifted so that AWG(Anglian Water Group) can see the undercapacity problems first hand. If you see this happening please ring, don't assume someone else will - better too many calls than too few.

Cllr Parker informed us that the County Council were acting as 'broker' for problems, we are in contact with AWG as to adoption of drains etc and will post any reply

[SteveW]

What I can't understand is this, if the developers knew of this problem early into their build, surely they didn't expect the problem to go away. 6 years down the line with upwards of 300 properties built, they Henry Boot latterly David Wilson, Westbury & Persimmon have moved on, the problem has got worse. They had a duty of care to inform prospective buyers of these problems much in the same way for Joe Public to sell a house these days you have to declare certain items regarding gas servicing records, electric test certificates, problem neighbours etc.

Once again a good case of house builders giving the Construction Industry a bad name.

[iggy]

after talking to the contractor on monday in the rain who had been called to carry out a survey of drainage system . he told me there is still lots of problems in manholes and gullys being blocked, pipework not being the correct size and when asked why foul water manholes blow at the bottom of the site i was told because rain water had been piped into the wrong system [possibly to try to take pressure of the storm system ?]
also after aprox 15 houses being affected by the water run off ie flooding to homes or gardens again. i had a meeting with martin dolby from DW Homes who stated they could not be held resonsible for the problem . i put to him that as they have put a french drain in all the way across the back of the site be it on somebody elses land not thiers !!!! so they admit they know there is a problem and and it is there resonsiblity to sort this out as steve says can the LLRA be active on this matter as it is a big problem to a lot of people . i know they have had reported the matter to city hall but could you keep us all informed of anything you find out

i would also like to point out that i and the other householders who live at the bottom of the steps are sorry for the mess caused to the grass area by the drainage trenches that have been dug [ not just me digging infact all of us were out yesterday trying to protect or houses 3 of which had already got water in them ] we are all working people with all are savings invested in are houses and are just trying to stop damage to them .the city /county council were told last tuesday of this action by the LLRA but to date nobody has been in contact with us to sort it out
one last point the french drain will stop ground water but not run off water but a drainage dyke will stop run off water and infact i do believe there was a dyke in this position as you could see it both sides of the steps when i payed my deposit on the house