Petition launched to deal with sewage flooding at Rickmansworth

As Storm Alex struck parts of Hertfordshire last weekend, many people at Rickmansworth were trapped in their homes as flooded water and sewage covered the streets around Stockers Farm Road and Harefield Road.

The flood began to break out on Saturday (October 3) and it wasn’t fully cleared until around midnight on Sunday (October 4).

Liam Fitzpatrick, the organiser of the petition, called the situation “miserable” as he estimates around 40 homes had people “trapped” inside due to the flood.

He explained the flood would have also affected a residential care home and other vulnerable people within the area.

The water was deeper in some parts than others (Photo: Victoria Pearson)

While it was not the first time Harefield Road has been covered be sewage water, it became the breaking point for many residents as hundreds have signed a petition to get some kind of resolution

Mr Fitzpatrick said: “It was pretty miserable for a lot of people in the two days. This is the second time this year it happened, and it’s the third or fourth time in recent years.

“The issue is simply this isn’t the first time this happened, it’s clearly a structural problem. And it is foul water, it’s basically grey.”

The petition organiser mentioned that even after the water itself was cleared, brown sludge had remained on the pavements and footpaths and many children going to St Mary’s CofE Primary School at Stockers Farm Road were forced to tread through the dirty roads.

Sewage water took over the area (Photo: Sue Stimpson)

He noted there were wet wipes and nappies lying around in the area, and in the past items like condoms would be left behind from the sewage.

He continued: “It got into some people’s homes. There is a bunch of people that live close to it and they regularly get flooded. And even though the road was closed, people still tried to drive through it.”

Mr Fitzpatrick believes that Thames Water should sit with Hertfordshire County Council to discuss a plan and prevent future incidents.

“It did take Thames Water until Saturday afternoon to send in a tanker. Thames were relatively slow to respond - but come on guys it’s time to fix this.”

Arad Paz, who was one of the 40 people trapped indoors, said he had to place sandbags to prevent the water entering his home.

He said: “The problem is we’ve lived here for 29 years, we used to get rainwater coming down the road – but the last few years this sewage started coming up by the corner of St Mary’s School, and it’s just disgusting.

“It’s totally unhygienic, especially with the kids coming to school here. We were literally trapped in the house for a couple of days, luckily we had sandbags to stop it coming in – we’ve never flooded as such in the house, but the point is nobody could get out. If there was an emergency, nobody could get in.”

The petition has gained the support of 368 people in the local area, but the group hope it gets more attention from compassionate people outside the area so that a solution is made to “invest in the infrastructure which is failing”.

In response to the petition, a spokesperson from the county council said: "During the time of Storm Alex, this area of Hertfordshire received in the order of 90–100mm of rain (4 inches) – over a month’s worth of rain in three days - with some heavy downpours at times. This led to localised surface water flooding and the local drainage networks being overwhelmed.

"As the Lead Local Flood Authority, Hertfordshire County Council is in the process of investigating the recent floods and is gathering information about the impacts. It would be helpful to have any reports of property flooding which can be submitted to the following link: https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/floodsurvey"

The spokesperson continued: "In the specific case of the Harefield Road area of Rickmansworth, there was flooding from the foul sewer as well as surface water.

"In the first instance, Hertfordshire County Council will leave the investigation of the sewer flooding to Thames Water as they have the best understanding of their infrastructure and the problems that arose during the flood event."

A spokesperson from Thames Water said: “Our sewers are designed to cope with most storms, but occasionally there is so much rain it overwhelms the system. Storm Alex saw two months of rain fall in just two days.

“We appreciate sewage flooding is really unpleasant, and our engineers have visited the scene to arrange clean-ups of the road and gardens.

“If any possessions have been damaged, people should make a claim through their home insurance. Customers may also be entitled to a payment under our Customer Guarantee Scheme.”

To sign the petition, visit here.