An elderly resident of Perth ’s Feus Road says past experience of flooding has left him “paranoid” that it will happen again if the council does not stay on top of drains blocked by leaves.
Retired now from 33 years with SSE, Mike Rogalski (74) told the PA when his road last flooded “about nine years ago”, he was piling sandbags and bailing out water rising over a wooden board he’d barricaded his front gate with.
When his wife at the back door of their home on Feus Road called out to a firefighter that she was struggling to keep water out, Mike recalled the couple were left to manage alone.
“The fireman walked round to see my wife frantically pushing water from our back door with a broom and said, ‘Sorry, there’s nothing we can do’ and just left us oldies to get on with it.”
He’s angry now that leaves have been piling up over drains and pavements in Feus Road by the Wellshill Cemetery at the McCash Stores end of the street.
On Monday he told the Perthshire Advertiser nothing had been done to clear the falling leaves for the past two weeks and any rainfall would lead to a calamity.
“In the two weeks since trees have been shedding, there has been no collection and the drains are blocked,” he said.
“Feus Road is a well-known trouble spot. In the past, water comes pouring down the Crieff Road like a river and floods homes on Feus Road. If you are older like me, you know how little it takes to slip over when the path is not clear.”
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “Our mechanised road and pavement street sweeping machines are working at full capacity, seven days per week, to clear leaves in many locations across the council area.
“At this time of year leaf fall is widespread and whilst we are concentrating our efforts on this task it is not possible to achieve leaf cleared public spaces at all times, especially in locations where there are large numbers of trees.
“We have visited Feus Road within the last two days and performed a mechanical sweep of the location. The road drains in Feus Road have been cleaned in recent months.
“For the most part however, our experience is that leaves generally lay across the grate.
“Nevertheless, the council will however check the drains in Feus Road.”
A council sweeping machine visited the street on Tuesday, November 9.
Mike got back in touch on Wednesday to say the leaf sweeper had actually made things worse. He pointed out that the piles of leaves had not been taken away and obstructed the pavement.
