FURTHER to your article ‘Flooding not caused by drains’ (Warrington Guardian, August 26), I can’t help thinking that when an excuse is made at least it should be plausible.

I agree that large amounts of rainfall in a short period of time may result in some road flooding but road drains are part of a ‘system’ and if all the parts are not working then there will be a problem.

Let me explain.

Gullies are the first point of an urban water drainage system allowing water to flow into drains, which are connected to sewers, which in turn deliver sewage to sewage treatment works.

Household waste pipes are generally connected to the sewer.

Under ‘normal’ rainfall and sewage flows there should be no problem in the system coping with the volumes it receives.

But if rainwater cannot get into the drains / sewers in the first place, it lies on the road / garden / park surface until the ‘system’ can cope with it.

You only have to walk around the streets to see that there are plenty of gullies that are full of soil, sand, paper and litter debris that even in light rainfall prevents the water from being taken away as it falls.

So there is no doubt that blocked road drains do contribute to flooding.

However it is true that where you can actually see water in road gullies they do tend to work as they are designed to do so.

I would urge every reader to report blocked road drains to Warrington Borough Council and / or United Utilities.

And then I would urge both the authority and UU to implement a proactive gully cleaning programme.

If the drains cannot cope with heavy rainfall then they should be upgraded to do so – you do pay UU to invest in the sewer infrastructure.

Not all drains in Warrington have concrete or oil in them – so don’t blame the inefficiencies of the ‘system’ on that excuse!

DAVE COWAN Orford