Petition to solve flooding on 'fatality risk' road

A petition calling on a council to take action at a flooding hotspot deemed a "fatality risk" has been signed by more than 400 people.

Elstree & Borehamwood town councillor Dan Ozarow, who started the petition, said the bottom of the hill on Allum Lane in Borehamwood frequently flooded, "posing a danger to residents".

He said when surface water at the junction with Elstree Recycling Centre froze during cold snaps, it created an ice sheet that was "a tragedy waiting to happen".

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it did have an annual programme of cleaning drains, but they could be overwhelmed during downpours.

Mr Ozarow, a Labour councillor, said when it flooded, drivers often swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid the standing water.

"Residents are astonished that the county council has allowed the flooding to continue for years and seem to be indifferent to the risk to life with their bureaucratic response," he said.

He claimed that several of the nearby drains were blocked and "not scheduled to be cleared in the coming year's works".

The petition has called on the council to unblock drains in the area, launch an investigation into the causes of the flooding and take "immediate action" to prevent it happening again.

The Conservative-run county council said: "We have an annual programme of cleaning out highway drains, however, when there is persistent heavy rain of the sort we have seen recently, the ground can become saturated and drainage systems can be temporarily overwhelmed.

"We'd encourage residents to report blocked drains or flooding on our online fault reporting system, where you can also see how recently each drain has been cleaned.

"Even if we can't fix the problem straight away, we can use the information to help us plan our future work programmes."

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