Huge change to drain cleaning on Lancashire's roads in effort to reduce flooding and costs

Lancashire County Council’s cabinet approved the work after being told checking every roadside gully would not only reduce the risk of flooding caused by blockages, but also be more cost-effective than the current, largely “reactive” approach of responding to problems only when they emerge.

At the moment, just 38 percent – or 113,000 – of Lancashire’s gullies are cleaned on a regular basis, of either every one or two years. The remaining 181,000 are visited only once it has been reported that they are not working properly.

Cabinet member for highways and transport Rupert Swarbrick acknowledged that the current system meant there were a “significant” number of drains that had never been inspected.

Once the forthcoming two-year inspection programme has been completed, the data it has generated on the condition of the gullies will be used to inform a new five-year assessment regime.

Immediate high-risk flooding events will still be attended to – within 24 hours wherever possible – but it is hoped the changes will reduce the number of urgent responses required.

Labour opposition group leader Matthew Tomlinson welcomed the move, but said residents would be “staggered” that 62 percent of gullies had not previously been cleaned on a regular basis.

County Cllr Swarbrick said the approach to drain cleaning had been “consistently reviewed” since 2019 – and it had become clear that reactive responses were “significantly more expensive than cyclical cleansing”.

A report presented to cabinet members revealed that a visit required to rectify a gully problem cost an average of £140, whereas the bill for a routine inspection was just £9.31. The current way of working was also said to be putting pressure on the highways budget, because it meant all reports of flooding resulted in a visit and cleanse.

During 2023/24, around 17,000 reactive visits were carried out on roads in the county council area – which excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen – at a cost of £2.3m.

Under the new regime, a “risk-based approach” will be taken, with the nature of the hazard and the classification of the road on which it has occurred determining whether it results in an immediate response.

Lancaster South division representative Erica Lewis – who previously sat on a County Hall flood risk management task group – said the challenge posed by climate change was that “unseasonal…heavy rainfall” was causing flooding in places where it was not necessarily expected.

County Cllr Swarbrick said the new policy “absolutely does not take away the capacity to respond…to what are increasingly not being freakish events, but just…events.” He added that the “intensive local knowledge” that would be built up during the next two years of inspections would help.

24-HOUR FLOOD RESPONSE

A new matrix lists which flooding events on which types of road will prompt “reactive” gully cleaning, within a target time of 24 hours:

***Internal flooding of residential/commercial property arising from a defective drainage system – all roads.

***Flooding or ponding on the carriageway rendering the highway impassable – all roads.

***Flooding or ponding likely to result in aquaplaning – sections of the primary gritting network where the speed limit is 40mph or above.

***Water on the carriageway arising from a defective drainage system likely to result in the formation of ice in the wheel tracks – all roads on the primary gritting network.

Source: Lancashire County Council