A Brighton suburb is flooding because the sewers struggle to cope with repeated heavy rain, a councillor said on Tuesday (14 November).
Conservative councillor Carol Theobald spoke out at a Brighton and Hove City Council committee meeting, saying that Patcham’s sewer network was not designed to cope with the volume of surface run-off.
Councillor Theobald, who represents Patcham and Hollingbury, said that groundwater levels and surface run-off were long-standing issues in the village.
Campaigners have repeatedly cited both issues and related problems as they fight the Royal Mail’s plans to build a distribution centre at Patcham Court Farm.
During heavy rain on Friday (10 November), residents took photographs of foul water bubbling up through drains in Winfield Avenue as children were walking to Patcham High School.
Some younger children also use the same route to reach Patcham Infant School and Patcham Junior School.
The Patcham Against Royal Mail campaign said that the Royal Mail planning application to build on Patcham Court Farm would exacerbate the flooding that already plagued the area.
Southern Water has also told the council that the scheme “could pose a significant risk” to groundwater abstraction.
At a meeting of the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee at Hove Town Hall, Councillor Theobald said: “In November 2000, a scrutiny was requested and granted to look at the flooding across the city including Patcham.
“During the panel discussions, the Southern Water waste water manager advised the panel ‘that the stormwater network was neither designed nor expected to cope with the volume of surface run-off and groundwater infiltration carried by the system towards the end of 2000’.
“The waste water manager also reported that the ‘main strategic sewer network was sufficient for the needs of extrapolated local population levels for the next 20 years’.
“Twenty-three years on, with the flooding and sewage levels in Patcham rising, it is clear that the sewer system is no longer sufficient for Patcham’s needs.
“My question would be what actions is the council going to take, as many of the actions from the scrutiny were not completed.”
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, who chairs the committee, said that the council was responsible for managing surface water and groundwater flooding but not the sewer becoming overwhelmed.
He said: “We have a responsibility to work in partnership with Southern Water to manage the ongoing flood risk in the city.
“As part of our ongoing activities, we’re talking with Southern Water and looking at ways to work collaboratively to deliver solutions to the flooding issues.
“The council is actively seeking opportunities for sustainable urban draining schemes and other nature-based solutions to reduce the amount of surface water entering the sewers.
“I share your concerns on flooding in the city, including in Patcham. It is worth pointing out that frighteningly the types of water we have now compared to 2000 do differ.
“What was once considered a one-in-ten-year event is now occurring every couple of years.”
Councillor Rowkins said that he had met residents, including one who was an expert on groundwater, and a further meeting was planned with resident experts and officials to discuss the issue.
Next week Councillor Rowkins said that he was due to meet officials to review Brighton and Hove’s flood risk management.
The reason the sewers can’t cope is they were installed in the Victorian era when only a few houses existed, no work has been carried out to increase the size of the pipe work and yet the planning department let a single dwelling be demolished to allow blocks of flats to be erected, the CIL money they take goes towards playgrounds, bus shelters, and council coffers to help build new homes, nothing goes towards the over worked sewer system that is run by a totally incompetent southern water.
Agreed, and it doesn’t help when the road drains are not cleared, either by sucking out silt or removing the weeds that block the gutters and grids at road level. The rainwater has nowhere to go but to the lowest point of the road as it mainly flows across the grids, down any slope and eventually to a flood area.
Totally agree. I spotted a number of drains in a row on a hilly section that were all blocked. Contacted the council who said they had cleaned them six months ago (i.e. before Autumn) and wouldn’t be attending again!
I suspect a big fib. I have not seen anyone doing this for years. I have reported blocked drains and nothing ever happens. If my house floods due to this I will sue.
CIL can be used for flood defences but not sewers.
That’s what the law and regulations state.
When is the last time the city gulleys, gutters and drains were cleared?
About 20 years ago?
The Victorians were pretty clever at building systems far bigger than they needed in anticipation of future city growth, so their age is not an excuse.
In fact much of Victorian engineering puts ours to shame.
Doubtless allowing all the flooding helps scare citizens into coughing up for climate change taxes.
All the above comments are true and yet the related council departments allow more and more houses to be built on greenfield sites around the city. They allow trees to be destroyed which doesn’t help matters. Why do we have to put up with these fools. I despair!!!
What a load of #hit literally. It has everything to do underinvestment and over population. Increase in HMOs, and flats. Next they will be blaming Global warming or some such thing. No long term planning by the council and water companies.
@ B&H Council. Clean Gullies. Simple. Get on with it and stop talking about it.
Selling off the properly designed equipment and outsourcing the task of keeping the drains unclogged and flooded sewers unblocked in a no doubt money saving exercise is proving that not maintaining infrastructure just costs you even more to fix, maintsin, repair and replace sooner rather than later.
Back in the 70s, you would regularly see the gully clearing lorries around town.
Not any more, the council would rather spend money on recruiting ‘Inclusion Managers’ and general wokeness