23 October 25
Public spaces
Transport, active travel and roads

Council asks residents to inform them about blocked drains

Trafford Council is asking residents to let them know about drains which are badly overflowing during periods of heavy rainfall.

Road maintenance teams are on hand to deal with the blockages - often caused by leaves and heavy rainfall - so that the surface water can flow freely into the public sewer system.

As part of the overall clearance work, the One Trafford Partnership (OTP) recently launched the annual winter leaf clearance programme which runs from13 October until the end of January next year. The programme is being delivered in two full sweeping cycles across all wards of the borough with four teams operating 16-tonne road sweepers, each supported by a leaf blower operative to clear footpaths and drains.

The OTP, a partnership between Amey and Trafford Council, are responsible for the drainage of more than 61,000 highway drains on public highways in the borough and all are cleaned on a recurring maintenance plan.

The teams work hard to reduce flood risk on the roads through cleaning and maintaining the drains. They also:

  • Sweep the streets to keep them clear of debris and leaves. Visit the street care page and leaf clearance page for further information
  • Monitor highway culverts and trash screens where we are responsible, and undertake repair work when necessary
  • Undertake an annual programme of drainage repairs to fix or replace defective drains
  • Clean gullies in known flooding hot spots before the winter season
  • Inspect and maintain gullies and drains in flooding hot spots when heavy rain is forecast (with a gully team on standby for any issues which may occur)

A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: 

“Drains can occasionally become temporarily blocked during periods of heavy rainfall due to leaves and silt. We are asking residents to let us know of any badly blocked drains so we can send our teams out to unblock them.”

In the case of a blocked drain, residents are asked to wait for two hours after the rain has stopped to see if the water level drops. If it does not, please report it online Report a blocked highway drain.