'We're trapped in forgotten village and no one cares it's too dangerous to help'

Roads submerged under seemingly never-ending flood water. have left trapped Brits begging for help. It's not continuous rainfall hitting Aldbourne, in Wiltshire, by the bucket load that's making life hell for residents, but a broken pipe too dangerous to fix, Thames Water bosses say.

Roads submerged under seemingly never-ending flood water. have left trapped Brits begging for help.

It's not continuous rainfall hitting Aldbourne, in Wiltshire, by the bucket load that's making life hell for residents, but a broken pipe “too dangerous” to fix, Thames Water bosses say.

Once the setting for E4 drama Glue, there's no chance of TV execs returning right now as tarmac can hardly be seen beneath the surface of gushing water. Storm Henk may have brought heavy downpours earlier this month but whereas other roads are slowly but surely draining away, the likes of Emma Chittenden are having no such luck.

Resident Emma told the Daily Star how the flooding is the “worst” she had seen in the 15 years she had been living there, and that the roads “are now rivers”. This has left those in the area unable to get out to get supplies, with delivery drivers refusing to do drop-offs because of the danger.

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Emma said: “I'm trapped in my own home. I can't go out for groceries and can't get them delivered. The torrential rain caused the aquifers in the hills to the north of the village to become overwhelmed and water has run into the ditches that the farmers haven't been maintaining. The ditches can't cope with the volume of water and the road has become a river.

“A manhole cover at the front of my property blew out because it couldn't cope with the volume of water. A Thames Water contractor came out but when they got there a sinkhole had started to appear at the bottom of my drive, we assume because a pipe had burst. The hole went from a few centimetres to about half a metre wide and over a metre deep. The engineer stayed until another contractor came out to make safe boards over.

“Unfortunately the hole was so big and so much water was coming out of it, the best they could do was put orange cones on the top of it.”

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Despite several promises from Thames Water, nearly a week later the problem is still there – with water still gushing out into the streets. The company has told the Daily Star that engineers did investigate, but “high water levels” meant that they couldn't finish the investigation.

The spokesman said: “We are monitoring the water levels in the area and would like to assure residents we will investigate when the water has receded and it is safe to do so.”

But Emma slammed the company, who keep claiming to her that they are waiting for the water levels to drop but that it won't happen because of the broken pipe.

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She said: “I've been told they won't fix the broken pipe while there's so much water coming out of it, yet there's always going to be water coming out of it unless they fix it. They've also told me that the pumping station can't cope and it needs tankers to remove some of the water, but all the tankers are in Gloucestershire.

“I also understand that there's widespread flooding, but all the attention seems to be elsewhere. Between Thames Water and the county council, our village has been all but forgotten again.”

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