Oldham Liberal Democrats slam Council as they refuse to clear blocked drains
Oldham Liberal Democrats have condemned Oldham Council “drain clearing failures” after a statement was issued by Oldham Council Highways Department saying that the Council is “not currently accepting reports of blocked gullies”. The statement came in response to a request made by councillor Howard Sykes MBE of Shaw Ward, who was trying to report several blocked drains in his patch.
According to Highways officers, all drains are inspected and cleared once a year and “ad-hoc” callouts to respond to individual complaints from councillors and residents just slow this work down.
Councillor Sykes said, “Firstly, it’s simply not the case that every drain in Oldham is maintained each year. I and local residents can list plenty of drains that look like they haven’t been cleared for years.”
“It is astounding that the Labour Council think it is acceptable to point blank refuse to accept complaints and genuine requests for maintenance.”
“Oldham Council now has a reputation for failing to get the basics right and this is just further proof. The Labour administration clearly doesn’t have a handle on things otherwise officers wouldn’t think it’s appropriate to send out memos refusing to do such much need work.”
Response from Oldham Highways Department – 19/2/24
Dear Cllr Sykes,
Thank you for your Email. Oldham Council provide a Gully Cleansing Service to fulfil a statutory duty. The aim of the service is to provide cyclic gully cleansing of all roadside gullies and to assess complaints of blocked gullies and flooding.
We aim to cleanse all roadside gullies once per year, however there may be operational difficulties such as road works, parked cars etc. which prevent access and it is not possible to return to these once the area has been visited. By working to a scheduled programme the Council is able to ensure that the available resources are used efficiently and ensure that every street in the borough receives treatment. Ad-hoc visits will delay the programme, therefore Council is not currently accepting reports of blocked gullies. If a blocked gully is putting your property at risk of flooding, please let us know and we will inspect and arrange for it to be cleared if necessary.
If you wish for further information with regards to these issues please contact the highways email address highways@oldham.gov.uk
Best Regards,
Oldham Council Highways
Reported blocked drains that we noticed had been blocked for a long time in the milnrow rd/Gordon St/2x Oak House which flooded last year btw/ on August 23, 2022 to a Jane Mackenzie-Kovacs at OMBC who was extremely intransigent and insisted they were regularly cleared by rota and would not entertain the fact that they had been like that for years, packed to the top solid. She maintained that cars must have been parked over them at the time of the maintenance and wouldn’t listen when it was pointed out that cars were not able to park where several of these grids were situated and furthermore they couldn’t have got into such a desperate condition in one year but this was multiple years of neglect. They are still in that same condition today nearly 2 years after complaining
Thanks for this.
There are dozens of such gullies in Shaw alone that clearly have not been touched for years never mind once a year like they say.
I will continue to battle for action with these grids.
I have reported more than once a number of grids on Milnrow Road – if you could let me know a more detailed location I can add to my list or confirm I have reported them as well. Please email me howard.sykes@oldham.gov.uk
Hope to hear from you soon.
The Oak House Gullies? Are these the two at the junction of Beal Lane Oak Street that cause pooling at the lowered textured (for bind/partially sighted people) paving crossing. From their location I would be very very surprised if vehicles ever parked on these two
I realised an attitufe had changed at the council when I trird to report these and the online form had disappeared.
So would I.
These are being added to a long list I am afraid and it really is just not good enough.
Looks like Smallbrook Road grids have been cleared, apart from one
Buckstones Road has quite a lot of blocked grids.
Thanks Martin.
Can you give me some more specific locations and will do battle to get them sorted, near house numbers or lamp post numbers would be rally helpful.
Much appreciated.