The road between Wilcott and Kinton near Shrewbury has now been flooded for four months, after never previously flooding. Even the road is crumbling away now. Residents have there say.
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00:00 Ed, just fill us in on where we are and what's going on Ed. This isn't the village pond is it?
00:04 Although it has been for the last four months. Just fill us in on what's happening here.
00:08 There is a pond here that's over topping. For 40 years locals have lived here and there's never been
00:12 a flooding issue. There are no council drains in this area to take water away so
00:19 Shropshire Council have been looking for a solution with local landowners to drain across
00:22 the neighbouring field down towards the River Severn. The problem is this road has been flooded
00:28 and not passable by a normal car only by 4x4 since December of this year.
00:33 People trying to access the bus stops are having to walk around through the fields.
00:38 On average about a car a week is losing tyres or being damaged or flooded because the road is
00:46 completely broken up and broken away which means cars are getting stuck on a regular basis.
00:51 Well yeah you've got that difference in level, you've got kind of the sharpness where the road's
00:55 crumbled which can you know damage your tyres as well. And I mean we've had quite dry weather the
00:59 last couple of days haven't we? So yet this isn't going anywhere is it at the minute?
01:04 We've had a very wet year and that has played absolute havoc with the highways across Shropshire
01:07 and I appreciate that. But the last couple of days it's been reasonably dry and this is about
01:12 as low as the water has got for the past four months. And what we want to do is just see a
01:17 solution. Locals want to be able to use the road and be able to get through.
01:22 Yeah as a car coming we'll see how he will perhaps see how he fares.
01:26 If he's locally or knows to stick to the middle he's going to squash me.
01:30 I mean as a you know this is a rural road these are kind of the lifelines for the villages aren't
01:42 they? You know it's an important route yeah? It's an important route through bearing in mind we have
01:47 the A5 Nescliffe bypass which sort of cuts through the parish. So it is the only route on this side
01:54 of the bypass to be able to access things like the school bus, the bus stop, the local shops and
02:00 things like that without going a long way around. We have the defibrillator, we have local nurseries
02:05 as well so in the area so there's businesses operating in this area that find it increasingly
02:10 frustrating when customers or deliveries can't access through because of the the flood water.
02:15 And even the uh child uh blade school yeah they could they used to put the children down here but
02:23 they have to stop there and go back. What's that from the school? Yeah yeah the nursery school.
02:27 Well I mean like you were saying you know 40 years some people have have lived here and not
02:33 seen this flood so there's a few theories as to what might be going on. There is a pond next to
02:38 this road which hasn't caused problem previous but it's fair to say something's changed hasn't it if
02:43 40 years this hasn't flooded. Yeah something's changed but I think what we're asking for is a
02:49 quick solution. Yeah the council to be fair to them have looked at a solution of putting a land drain
02:54 in across the field here. Yeah and what we're saying is this needs to happen sooner rather than
02:59 later yeah because this is now four months of disruption yeah and it can't carry on. Yeah.
03:08 So we can see there we are the road just drops away if you just step up onto the uh the other
03:13 the difference in height there you know it's it's a quite a quite a chunk there isn't it really?
03:19 Well really bad yeah it goes from about two inches yeah to about 10 inches I think. Yeah
03:34 you know the postman's had to change his route hasn't he because he can't come through yeah.
03:38 Normally he would just come onto our bit down there yeah and then just drive straight up here
03:43 and he can't do that he has to go all the way around the village yeah into Kinton and then
03:47 all the way back. And Ed you were saying there's some houses for sale and it's affecting you know
03:52 because it's affecting access. I've had a number of residents contact me who've got properties on
03:55 the market where they have viewings and it's the first thing that the potential buyers say is what's
04:00 going on is this a regular issue? Yeah. And I believe a number of sales have been seriously
04:05 affected by the fact that this flood is here and that some people can't even go to the viewing if
04:10 they're in a small electric car for example.