Flooding in Cheshire East: update

 

Highways officers from Cheshire East Council are continuing to work hard to reopen roads affected by the recent torrential rain.

Unusually heavy rain on Friday (July 6) led to a total of eight roads being closed across the Borough due to flooding. Six have now been reopened and the remaining two will be inspected today to see if they are safe for cars to use.

The following roads were closed and have since been reopened:

· Wrinehill Road, Wybunbury;

· Hall Lane, Houghton;

· Maw Lane, Sidney;

· A500 Shavington By-Pass;

· Whites Lane, Weston; and

· Wilmslow Road, Handforth.

Whitehaven Road in Faddiley and Mill Lane in Blakenhall remain closed.

In addition to road closures, the Council also delivered 450 sandbags to properties across the Borough in response to requests from concerned residents.

The Council received over 200 enquiries on Friday from residents about flooding. Issues included blocked gullies, flood reports and requests for sandbags.

Staff from the Council’s highways team worked throughout the weekend to deal with the floods, unblocking drains and clearing gullies.

Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, said:

“I would like to thank the Council staff who worked so hard over the past few days to deal with the poor weather conditions and ensure that as many roads as possible remained open and that residents in need were helped as quickly as possible.

“We monitor the weather forecasts very carefully and work closely with our colleagues at the Environment Agency to make sure we are prepared as we can be for such extreme weather.

“I am very concerned that the weather has caused further damage to our highway network which is already suffering from decades of underinvestment.”