Obstructed gully on Delamere Road

As shown by the picture, the gutter running down the even numbers side of Delamere Road has been interrupted by the traffic-calming extension of the pavement at the junction with Ethelbert Road. On 23 June, after the thunderstorms, fast-running water mixed with sewage from an overflowing sewer on Crescent Road was obstructed by the extended pavement and sewage-filled water backed up along the road and pavement. This resulted in sickeningly smelly black deposits of silt in the road and on the pavements and an extensive cleaning up operation by residents and Merton Council, which must have been very expensive for the Council.

There is a gully drain just after the extended pavement going towards Southdown Road but the water doesn't reach it because the fall is interrupted. A possible way of preventing the problem described above from arising in the future suggested by a number of residents could be to conduct the water towards that gully drain along the line of the original kerb through some sort of covered gully or pipe running through the traffic-calming extension. Your technicians may of course have other ways.

I am of course not criticising the traffic-calming measure itself, which serves a useful purpose that I think is appreciated by all. However, as things stand, when there is a build-up of surface water like this week there is nowhere for it to go, so we need a solution for this.

Thank you for your time in responding to this.