Lenzie Moss Flooding 20th October 2008

Lenzie Pupils Way Home Blocked by Flooded Road.

Dense rain over Lenzie at 3pm

The pond several hours after the downpour!

At the end of what must be the wettest summer we've ever seen in Lenzie, at the end of a week when the official Lenzie website rain gauge (a plastic bottle in the garden) showed a staggering 80mm of rain, we were expecting a change in the weather. And it happened! On the afternoon of Monday 20^th October, the gloom of yet another massive rain cloud turned on the lights all over Lenzie and by 3pm every bit of grass and path was running with water and streams were appearing where no streams ever ought to be. Then at 3pm as the parents stood in horror huddled under umbrellas being blown away by the wind, the rain shower reached its crescendo.

The result was traffic chaos as the drains on Oak drive were yet again blocked at a place where there is often large puddle waiting for passing cars to soak passing pedestrians. This time, however the drains were blocked solid and there was a massive pond that stretched across both pavements leaving both Lenzie Academy and Lenzie Moss pupils with a real problem getting home. Whilst it was possible for some to avoid the worst of the water by making a wet detour across the grasss one unfortunate Lenzie Academy pupil had no choice but to wade through the cold water as his house was completely blocked off.

Lenzie Moss Playing "fields a disgrace" – Council to blame?

The new river from the playing fields.

Flooded playing fields

Whilst Monday may have been an extraordinarily wet day, this has only highlighted rather than caused the almost permanently flooding of the playing fields alongside Lenzie Moss School. "The situation is so bad that this spring there were frogs spawing in the centre of the playing fields" said one dad "They are a disgrace" said another Lenzie Moss Mum, and true, at times the water is so deep that young children cannot walk across even in Wellingtons as the water is too deep. Despite several letters to councillors mentioning the problem no action has been taken.

Whilst the drain dug alongside the playing field might be expected to help drain the field, in fact the spoil from the drain was simply spread on one side of the field making an almost impenetrable barrier holding back all the water on the field.		Parents of local children have been commenting on the appalling state of the field which does attract many local children on the few occaisions it is dry enough. Unfortunately, there is some question as to who owns the land. But even if the council does not itself own the land, it is very clear that the so called drainage works caused the flooding.
	The drain that causes the flooding!

By.Mike Haseler