'Deflation' as 'massive' puddle continues to blight the lives of thousands of residents in Northampton

A “massive” puddle continues to blight the lives of thousands of residents in a busy part of Northampton.

When it rains in Far Cotton, a notoriously giant puddle forms at the pedestrian crossing just outside the Asda supermarket in London Road, where thousands of pedestrians walk every day.

After “years of nagging”, independent councillor Julie Davenport (Rushmere and Delapre ward) was delighted when the local authority agreed to fix it in August this year.

Councillor Davenport said, "After years of nagging to get this major issue in Far Cotton sorted, I was finally told that money was available to have extensive works carried out to solve the issue. We were so happy to be told the work would be carried out.

“Considering it is a known flood zone three area, I do think this should have been tackled a long time ago. Residents have suffered major flooding there previously."

However, West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) “failed to fix the problem”, instead they actually “made it worse”, according to the councillor.

Councillor Davenport said: “After two weeks of traffic disruption due to the works, I was contacted the first time we had heavy rain fall to be told it is now actually worse than before the works because both sides of the road are affected, not just the Asda side. I felt totally deflated to hear this. My role is to help make residents lives better not worse.”

Hazel Harris, who has been running Dazels fancy dress shop on St Leonard’s Road for 24 years, said every time it rains “you get a bit worried”.

She said: “Every time now it rains you get a bit worried thinking, ‘is the shop alright?’ You could swim in the shop when it flooded in 2019. That was a hard time.

"The council came and did the road a few weeks ago, because every time it rains you can’t cross that main road. I don’t know how much the council paid to fix it but as soon as we got some rain it’s exactly the same as before. That puddle there is massive. Apparently all the Victorian drainage system underneath has collapsed.”

A WNC spokeswoman said it is working closely with Anglian Water to fix the issue.

The spokeswoman said: “The drainage investigations, repairs and checks at this location were completed in August to relieve the flooding. Due to the recent heavy rain, the road became flooded again.

"We are now working closely with Anglian Water to resolve a further issue caused by a third-party. So far we have been on-site and jetted the main and undertaken a camera survey to assess what repairs are required.”