Workers descend on to busy Northampton street to fix 'massive' puddle which has blighted the lives of thousand of residents

Workers have been out in force today to fix a “massive” puddle which has blighted the lives of residents in the area.

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.

Following a report by this newspaper yesterday highlighting the issue, drainage workers were seen at the site today (Thursday, October 26) trying to fix the problematic puddle.

Reacting to the news, councillor Julie Davenport (Delapre and Rushmere ward) said: “So happy to see drainage workers and equipment dealing with the ongoing flooding issue at the corner of Ransome Road and the London Road. Thank you Logan MacLeod of the Northampton Chronicle (& Echo) for highlighting this issue. I have still not received an update from Highways about this.”

A council spokeswoman denied that the reason workers were on site today was because of yesterday’s publicity.

A council spokeswoman added today: “There have been works carried out on the site to resolve the concerns over the last few weeks, including today. This is part of pre-programmed work, and there has been no change to the schedule due to ‘publicity’.”

The council has been asked to provide the pre-programme works schedule. Councillor Davenport says this is the first time the workers have been on site since last Monday (October 16).

Councillor Davenport says she has been “nagging” the local authority for years to fix the issue, especially after it became increasingly worse in 2016 when the new junction was installed.

WNC says it fixed the junction this summer. However, according to councillor Davenport, WNC actually “made it worse”.

The councillor 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. 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."

The council said yesterday it is working closely with Anglian Water to fix the issue.

“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,” the council spokeswoman said.

"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.”