Shaw Liberal Democrat Councillors will be demanding action from Oldham Borough Council to tackle flooding at Dunwood, after the continued failure by the Council and the Environment Agency to address the threat posed to local properties.
Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said: “For many years we have had the problem of run-off rainwater from Whitfield threatening properties along Woodend and on Smallbrook Road, the owners of which are regularly obliged to deploy sandbags to prevent water entering their homes. After heavy rain it is also common to see the bowling green on Dunwood Park look like a lake, the footpaths unpassable on either side and Pencil Brook becomes a raging torrent.”
After years of asking again and again for effective solutions to the problems at Dunwood, Shaw Councillors are once more questioning the Borough Council’s approach to tackling flooding at Dunwood.
“Climate change is predicted to make our country’s weather warmer and wetter overall, which means that rainfall is likely to increase and consequently this problem will not go away,” added Councillor Sykes. “It is clear then that we need to revisit what has been done by the Environment Agency so far; their engineering solutions have proven ineffective and they have proven toothless in forcing local landowners to take effective measures to prevent excess rainwater running from their land and threatening local properties and our Green Flag Park with flooding.”
Water as been running off the hillside and across the main path in the middle of Dunwood Park for many years. Last week it had a very strong smell of farm slurry. This must be polluted, it runs into off into the river Beal.
Thanks for your communication this is just one of the many issues in this area I am afraid due to the activities at the top of the hill. I am afraid these issues are down to the Environment Agency (not the council) and to date have failed to take any action despite my efforts to get them to do so.