Concerns over state of gullies in area of Morpeth town centre

The Olympia Hill resident regularly walks along streets such as Morrison Road, Olympia Gardens, Hood Street and Howard Terrace where flooding problems can occur in heavy rain because “a number of the gullies are blocked with leaves and grit to the extent that grass grows in them” – including this weekend (July 22 and 23).

He added: “Unlike the old-time road sweepers with their ‘dillies’ holding two bins and a selection of brooms and scrapers, the sweeper drivers nowadays only sweep the places their machine can get into.

“A particular problem in the Victorian suburbs close to the town centre arises from the fact that many residents here have cars, but few have garages or drives. As a result, the roadsides in these places are always more or less filled up with parked cars.

“Short of closing the streets to traffic during the annual road sweeping, there is little the highway authority can do in this situation. One improvement is possible, however, to equip the operatives with a steel broom and a triangle hoe.

“With those, the operatives could get out of the cab, clean the gutter between the cars, sweep the grit and soil into the middle of the road, and then clear it up with the mechanical sweeper. That way there would be a little less grit and soil to clog up the gullies.”

A spokesperson for Northumberland County Council said: “The council takes the cleaning of our streets and gullies very seriously and we have a rigorous programme of both mechanical and manual street cleaners, along with a regular programme of gulley emptying.

“Every effort is being made to tackle the build-up of debris and any surface water drainage issues caused by blocked gullies that are identified between regular emptying cycles are investigated and cleaned as appropriate.

“Cleaning teams will be out on the roads mentioned in the coming weeks to see if any work is needed.

“In the meantime, we are encouraging the public to report any issues through the council’s Fix My Street reporting system so we can investigate problems – https://fix.northumberland.gov.uk”