Couple left flooded with despair

HOUSEHOLDERS are at their wit’s end after stinking sewage once more poured into their homes despite 12 weeks of work to prevent it.

Tuesday night’s deluge left Chris and Andrea Marsden and three neighbours despairing when effluent flooded their homes in County End, Lees.

The couple have claimed around £65,000 in insurance over the years at their three-storey house, which they say is now unsellable.

And the ground floor has been blacklisted by insurers who say that in future the couple will have to pay their own bills for water damage at that level — once used as a lounge but left empty for five years.

Chris (37) said the couple had made five claims, and their insurance premium had rocketed to £1,000 a year, excluding the bottom floor.

He said: “The first flood was in 2003, and it’s happened 10 or 11 times since — I’ve lost count. The last time the water was 4ft to 5ft deep.”

Chris said this week’s incident was the latest in a long-running saga surrounding a culvert which runs under the properties.

A wrangle over who should pay for repairs to stop the flooding ended up with Oldham Council taking charge and attempting to charge the original landowners for the cost.

Chris said: “We are now 16 weeks into what should have been a seven-week project, and we couldn’t believe it when the houses flooded again.

“I had a look at the work being done and it seems a chamber has been fitted to hold the excess water. But once that’s full it has nowhere to go.”

Assistant director of highways and engineering, Tony Noblet, said: “Following the recent heavy rain there has been a small amount of flooding in the County End area of Lees.

“This is unfortunate and we are doing all we can to help the residents get back to normal as quickly as possible.

“The work that is going on at County End is essential maintenance of the culvert. During the work we discovered several problems that we believe were caused when near-by flats were built.

“These were deeper and more complex than originally thought and so have taken longer to fix.

“We understand that this prolonged work is causing problems for residents and we apologise it is taking longer than planned.”