Tadley infant school faced with sewage spewing drain, following floods

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the full Tadley Town Council on Monday evening, when town and county councillor Warwick Lovegrove, (Lib Dem, Tadley and Baughurst), said that he had recently toured the town with an engineer from the county council’s highways department to inspect soakaways in road gullies.
Problem areas included a blown drain cover that was spilling sewage on to a footpath adjacent to the playing fields of Bishopswood Infant School, Barlows Road.
The headteacher of the school, Glen Golding said that the footpath was used by parents and children walking to school and that the flooding and sewage overflow had happened during the Christmas holidays.
Thames Water investigated the problem yesterday (Wednesday).
The footpath has not been closed, but Mr Golding said that the school would have to take further action should the problem persist.
Other problem areas in the town included New Church Road, outside Tadley Methodist Church, Wigmore Road, and an area opposite Osier House, Barlows Road.
A tree that fell in high winds outside Bishopswood Golf Club, Bishopswood Lane, remained blocking the road for seven days, said Mr Lovegrove, who added this was not good enough, and that he would be writing to the relevant department at the county council about the issue.
Town councillor Tony Flahive said that flooding was also regularly reoccurring at the mini roundabout near Tadley Swimming Pool, New Road, making one lane of the road impassable.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hampshire County Council said that there had been 20mm of rain across Hampshire in the preceding 24 hours, with a further 30mm expected in the following 24 to 36 hours, falling on already saturated ground.
Since December 18, up to 250mm has fallen across the county, the equivalent of three months’ rainfall in just three weeks, according to the county council, which reported that stretched highways maintenance crews were working around the clock and had increased the number of tankers and jetters to deal with flooded roads and blocked gullies.
Advice on flooding can be found at

/flooding and on the Environ ment Agency website, visit www. environment-agency.gov.uk/ homeand leisure /floods