Flooded families want answers after homes swamped

Andy Palmer said he almost broke down when flood water rushed into his home for the fourth time in less than 12 weeks

Families in a Nottinghamshire village want answers after their properties were surrounded by flood water nine times in less than three months.

Andy and Yolande Palmer's home in Nottingham Road, Burton Joyce, has been flooded inside four times since October, while neighbours Adam and Harriet Brown have been flooded twice.

Some residents believe newly-blocked drains are to blame for the repeated flooding.

Severn Trent say drains are the responsibility of Nottinghamshire County Council, but acknowledged their network had been overwhelmed by surface water since Storm Babet.

Mr Palmer's house on 20 October

Repair work to the flood-damaged homes is on hold because the neighbours fear their homes might be deluged again.

"The last time it happened, I almost broke down," said Mr Palmer, who had been trying to pump water away from his home for 12 hours, before he finally had to give up on 2 January.

It was the fourth time his home had been flooded, but his property has been surrounded by water nine times since October.

He and his wife Yolande have lived in the house for 10 years, with no previous flooding problems.

Mr Palmer and his wife recently installed a new kitchen, and they say most of it will now end up in a skip.

He blames maintenance work to drains, which villagers saw happening on 19 October.

"From that date we've had nothing but problems," he said.

Adam and Harriet Brown said a neighbour told them their home had not flooded in three decades - until they were swamped twice in quick succession

Neighbour Harriet Brown said her home had flooded twice.

She said: "We just want to know what's changed."

The family moved into their home 18 months ago but she says a neighbour, who moved away, told her the houses had never flooded in three decades.

Mrs Brown is worried about the health impact of foul water from sewers on her one-year-old child and her unborn baby.

The family are now living in one room upstairs.

Mrs Brown said dealing with the flood water had left her husband, Adam, mentally and physically exhausted and they fear unless action is taken, the next flood is one heavy rainfall away.

Clive Laverack believes work on a new housing estate has left the drains blocked

Retired merchant navy captain Clive Laverack lives near both couples, but has managed to avoid the water coming into his home.

He believes the problem is mud being swept into drains from new housing developments.

He says during heavy rainfall, a sea of red mud sweeps down a neighbouring road.

"I call it a mud-berg," he said. "There's no drainage on this side of the road. The drains are blocked."

Further down the road, Sally Gray says she has been raising concerns about mud blocking the drains since April, and pointed out two drains where soil can be seen a few centimetres below the grating.

She said: "I've lived in the village for 48 years. It's never been like this with dirty mud everywhere. It's atrocious."

She wants Severn Trent to put a camera down into the pipework to see what is going on.

Sally Gray says some drains have been blocked for months

Severn Trent said it had not carried out any maintenance work on roadside drains in the area.

Waste team manager Ian Smith said: "We're really sorry to hear of the flooding experienced by customers on Nottingham Road, as we know how devastating any flooding can be.

"As part of our investigations into the flooding, we're working with partners to understand where surface water is getting into our network and overwhelming it, and what can be done to prevent this from happening again."

Nottinghamshire County Council says its flood team are still investigating the cause of the problems.

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