A councillor has demanded an ‘engineering solution’ to the flooding that again hit the A555 Airport Relief Road this week. The £290m dual carriageway - which links Hazel Grove, in Stockport, to the airport - has repeatedly flooded after severe downpours since it opened five years ago.
It was closed again this week as heavy rain battered the region, bringing misery to drivers trying to get around Stockport, south Manchester and Cheshire. An investigation into the disastrous floods that hit Stockport in the summer of 2019 found that ‘design shortcomings’ meant the road would ‘remain vulnerable’ - with council bosses admitting they may never fully resolve the issue.
But there have now been fresh demands for the council to find an ‘engineering solution’ to the problem - and bring an end to the chaos that continues to blight residents. Coun Brian Bagnall, who represents Bramhall South and Woodford, called for renewed action at a full council meeting on Thursday night - insisting it was time to end the ‘misery’ it was causing residents.
READ MORE: 'It's a joke, it happens every time it rains': £290m A555 Airport Relief Road closes due to flooding AGAIN
His remarks came after Coun Colin MacAlister, cabinet member for economy and regeneration, warned it would not be ‘an easy fix’. Coun MacAlister told members that while action had been taken to improve matters - such as installing new pumps and tanks- the rate at which water could be discharged into the river was limited due to the potential for flooding at Handforth and further downstream.
He added that the situation was further complicated as the council was considering litigation against the previous contractor ‘who did things wrong which we have put right’. “I don’t think it’s ever going to be fully solved because of the problems I have highlighted.
"You can build a bigger tank, you can build bigger ponds - the problem is that only gives you certain hours of protection. Once you get to emptying that tank into the river we can only do it to the extent of - my understanding is - what the land would have been able to do prior to the build of the road, that’s the legal situation to it.”
However, Coun Bagnall said it was imperative an engineering solution was found to the ongoing flooding. “It’s not once in every 30 years, it’s not once in every 100 years - at the moment, it’s every year,” said the Conservative.
“And if you are trying to get you children to school and you don’t get them there until 10.15am - which some residents didn’t this morning - that is a major issue, particularly if you have got to get to work. The chaos that this causes can’t be just [dismissed by] ‘oh well, we are going into litigation’ - the two are separate as far as I am concerned.”
He told councillors that the problem had previously been blamed on issues with pumps and attenuation tanks. But these had now been addressed and flooding was now being put down to not being allowed to pump water away quickly enough.
“We have to find a workable solution for this,” he said. “We can’t, every so many months, or once a year - or even once every 30 years have the A555 closed. It causes chaos in Heald Green, it causes chaos in Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, it causes chaos in Bramhall and it causes chaos in Woodford. The ripple effect of that goes across the whole borough.”
Coun Bagnall said the issue of litigation should be left in the hands of the council’s lawyers. “But we have to get an engineering solution,” he said. “And if that’s to build more tanks, if we have to have conversations with United Utilities and the Environment Agency, then let’s have those conversations.
“But there has to be a solution to this, because it’s causing absolute misery for all the residents that it affects.” Coun MacAlister agreed to convene a meeting with Coun Bagnall - and any other interested councillors - in order to find a solution, together with council officers.
Stockport council met at the town hall on Thursday night (January 12).
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