John Buller, who lives in Lye Head, said he contacted Worcestershire County Council in December after the road drainage became blocked and caused a “river” to run through his and his neighbour’s garden.
Despite the problem now being resolved, Mr Buller said it took six weeks for the county council to come out to fix the problem.
He said: “It was horrendous. The water was just cascading down. You wouldn’t believe it. We couldn’t use the garden and our neighbour couldn’t use their largest field for their horses as it was covered in water. It was about 20 to 30ft wide.
“It has been resolved now, but it shouldn’t have taken six weeks to unblock the drain. It’s caused more damage to the gardens and plants by taking so long to fix it. The amount of water just kills the plants – the flowers are drowned.
“It feels like the rural areas are a lot less of a priority than the towns. Nobody seems to care.”
The 76-year-old said he had lived at the property for over 30 years and started noticing problems with flooding around three years ago.
The flooding is connected to road drainage issues with several drains becoming blocked over the last few years.
The resident has blamed the lack of investment in local infrastructure, which is causing the drainage problems to persist.
The county council confirmed all outstanding issues reported had been resolved, but it will “continue to monitor the area and respond to any further reports”.
Mr Buller said: “At 76 years old, I shouldn’t have to be putting up with it. There was a problem with a blockage in a pipe three years ago, so the county council came out, dug it up and fixed it, but then last year, there was another problem with the drainage further down.
“In September, the drain was fine and seemed to be coping well, but then the next drain down was blocked. It’s a mess. The drains are just constantly getting blocked. We were told the latest one was full of twigs and branches, but that doesn’t just happen overnight. There needs to be a focus on maintaining the drains and not just waiting for them to build up again and cause more flooding.
“Councillor Dan Morehead has been great, but it feels like the county council just doesn’t have the resources to deal with the problem urgently. Everything takes forever. We understand that problems like this can happen, but it’s about how quickly they’re sorted out. We shouldn’t have had a stream of water running through our gardens for weeks.”
A spokesperson for Worcestershire County Council said: “We are aware of flooding concerns at Lye Head, Bewdley, and have attended the area on a number of occasions following reports of blocked drainage.
“Gullies were inspected during November and December 2025, with clearance carried out in December 2025 after a build-up of twigs and branches was identified. We also met at the property on January 5 to discuss the flooding concerns and potential causes, and the location was added to our jetting programme for further investigation.
“A jetting crew attended on February 10, cleaned the carriageway gullies and jetted the culvert, clearing a significant blockage and resolving the flooding at the property. The owner spoke with the team on site and later emailed to thank them for their assistance.
“There are currently no outstanding issues at this location. Drainage assets are prioritised based on risk and attended in line with our timescales, and we will continue to monitor the area and respond to any further reports.”
Comments are closed.