Earlier this year, I was contacted by Mary Coughlan, owner of Lucindas on Russell Hill Parade. Mary told me that over the years, her shop has been adversely affected by severe flooding, with water travelling down towards the back of her shop, bringing along debris from other people’s recycling bins and street litter. On occasion, cars have even been written off.
Mary and her team have to spend hours cleaning the mess and they worry every time it starts raining heavily.
Having visited the site and seen video footage, I knew this had to be a priority. We believe that problems have got worse, in part because of the new development on Foxley Lane and that it would only worsen with the Mosaic Place/Purley Baptist Church development.
Along with Simon and Catherine from the Purley BID, Mary and I both met with the Thornsett site manager to discuss measures they can put in to stop water from accumulating behind Mary’s shop.
Following this, I convened a site visit with Council officers, TfL representatives and Conway to discuss what action is being taken and what further measures can be adopted to mitigate these issues. We know that flooding will still occur, but it is vital that that residents living on nearby Foxley Lane and Banstead Road are also as protected and that Mary and her team are able to focus on the shop without worry of these issues.
I am so grateful that all stakeholders involved have been engaging and proactive. Council officers and the TfL team have also been fantastic at involving Mary, myself and the Purley BID and keeping us in the loop.
There have been a number of outcomes that I wanted to share:
- The around Foxley Lane, including Russell Hill Parade has now been listed as a TfL flooding hotspot meaning that officers will have to be much more reactive to severe flooding in this area
- TfL have been undertaking remedial damage works on Foxley Lane and Banstead Road
- The cleaning of the gullies in this area has been increased to every six months and the frequency of street cleaning on Foxley Lane/the roads leading to it has been increased
- Croydon Council has increased the frequency of street cleaning on Foxley Lane and the roads leading to it
- TfL are conducting a wider investigation into the drainage system on Foxley Lane
- TfL are investigating the possible installation of five gully sensors, and changing existing gullies to side entry gullies. This means TfL will be automatically notified when gullies are almost at capacity. We expect installation to be within the next 8-12 weeks
- Croydon Council has added Foxley Lane to its Flood Alleviation Programme and is undertaking further investigation on additional measures that could be implemented including more gullies
- Veolia has been instructed to clean and remove any debris that travels down to the back of Russell Hill Parade following severe flooding (they had previously said they were unable to because of it being private land)
The progress made on this agenda is clearly an example of a positive joined-up working approach between Croydon Council and TfL. In a few weeks’ time, Daisi Osibona, the Council’s drainage engineer who has been a great support and I will be doing a walk-about to review progress and identify opportunities for further improvement.
Cllr Samir Dwesar
