06/03/13 Flooded home - 412 Lichfield Road (A38), BartonFred and Hazel Ash are still living in temporary accommodation following their house being flooded back in November 2012AN elderly couple who were forced to leave their home after it was submerged during flooding at the back end of last year are still living in temporary accommodation more than three months on.
Fred and Hazel Ash’s home on the A38, near Barton under Needwood, was swamped by a torrent of water and sewage after November’s heavy rainfall caused Burton’s most substantial floods in recent years, with the relentless rainfall becoming too much for a nearby sewage pump to cope with.
Subsequently, the couple, both 77, were forced to leave their home.
Severn Trent has issued an apology following the failure of its pump and has promised to act to prevent any similar incidents in the future, while Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant was forced to step into the row in a bid to help resolve the situation.
Mr Ash has been left outraged at the time it has taken for work to begin on his home and says he and his wife have been kept largely in the dark, only being drip-fed bits of information.
Mr Ash said: “I’m disgusted. Nobody seems to be doing anything. We have no idea how long it’s going to take, they haven’t touched it. The only people who have given us any help are the parish council, they’ve been brilliant with us.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re in a nice building, but it’s not our home.”
Albert McWilliams and his wife have also been affected by the floods and remain in temporary accommodation in Tatenhill after they were also forced to leave their home on the A38.
Mr McWilliams said he had been left ‘frustrated’ at being forced to live away from his home for such a long period of time.
It is understood that work on the affected homes is to begin in the coming weeks, with Saga insurance saying the situation was ‘progressing well’ and it was hoped that the affected residents could return home before the end of the month.
A spokesman for Severn Trent said: “We would like to apologise to residents of Barton under Needwood who may have been affected by flooding.
“We have worked together with relevant parties to assess what we can do together to prevent the local community from being further affected.”
