Bungalow 'crumbling' thanks to flooding making it 'unsellable'

A father and son who say their bungalow is "crumbling" because of excess surface water and drainage issues are at their wits' end as nobody seems to be taking responsibility for the volume of water in their village.

Several neighbours have expressed concerns about an unusually large amount of water affecting properties in Lanjeth, near St Austell. One elderly resident, aged 80, says she has to dig trenches to stop the water flooding into her garden, which they say pours in from the nearby railway line, as previously reported.

Tristan Trudgian, 37, and his father Graham, 74, are perhaps the most severely affected with the footings of their property disintegrating and the water having gotten inside the property. "It's unsellable," Tristan said of their home. "The land is completely sodden. In the house, you can see the beams coming through the ceilings and cracks are appearing daily. I can hear it cracking above me."

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Despite this and complaints from several others on the street, home to eight properties, Cornwall Council, Network Rail and South West Water have been unable to provide any help or a solution. There is also a source of spring water coming up through the Tarmac in the street.

Mr Trudgian thinks his dad's property is the worst affected. "Our building is collapsing. If you put your hands on the footing bricks it turns to crumbling sand and that's holding this whole house up.

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"Our property has unfortunately had it. We've got cracks in every room. My dad spends every day, in fact, he spent all his retirement years digging up and trying to sort this water. The flood water comes straight down School Hill, there is no adequate drainage and we're the first house."

A retired teacher and nurse, who lives alone, told CornwallLive: "I've been out with a shovel digging trenches so that the water goes into the drains. It comes down through the fields and last year it was coming down the main hill right down through the streets."

On a previous occasion, the water entered her home and destroyed the carpets so she has to take preventative measures to stop this from happening again. "I've made sure it doesn't damage my property as it did in the past and actually affected the carpets in several rooms so I had to use my household insurance."

"We have all these problems and it comes spilling down the road and they all [the authorities] say it's nothing to do with them. One year it came just flying down the road and pouring into our gardens and flooding our gardens too."

Dave Hunkin, 73, a now-retired former Imerys worker, has lived on the street since 1986 and says it's been getting worse particularly this year. "It's been steadily getting worse, really, but I've never seen it so bad as this year, and that's bearing in mind that we have had a dry spell."

Despite these problems nobody seems to be taking any responsibility although South West Water and Network Rail have this week confirmed they will be sending teams out to investigate. Cornwall Council, however, said problems with the water ingress are down to the landowner and affected parties.

It did say it is aware of the issue with the spring water coming up through the public highway and is investigating ways to manage this water to ensure the safety of highway users. While initial investigations by Network Rail show the water pooling is not an issue created by the railway, it is carrying out further surveys.

It is carrying those out on a pipe that runs underneath the highway and beneath the track which sits just behind the property line. South West Water too is sending someone out despite having no surface water assets in the area.