Everyone 'washing their hands' of Chris's flooding

TEN months of flooding at a Peverell home is causing a nightmare for the owner who says he feels abandoned by the authorities and is considering taking legal action.

- By ALISON STEPHENSON Local Democracy Reporter

Former Plymouth firefighter of 46 years, Chris Hockaday spends every day when it rains pumping water out of a three metre deep hole in his front garden so it doesn't enter his cellar.

The excavation of his garden to try and find the source of the water cost him £3,000, yet the source is yet to be identified.

Mr Hockaday, 68, said the issue has left him on antidepressants and he has suffered two nasty chest infections, thought to be as a result of the damp from the water entering his property.

He says Plymouth City Council, as the lead flood risk authority, has opened and shut his case on four occasions without resolving the matter.

He described the authority as "incompetent" and "unresponsive" after failing to reply to his emails.

"I feel completely alone," he said. "The regional manager of South West Water did me the courtesy of coming to my house to take notes and said I may be entitled to compensation but that the leak needed to be sorted first.

"I still haven't had a visit from anyone from Plymouth City Council. The water is coming from outside my garden so the responsibility should be theirs."