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The flooded families living in fear of the rain

BBC Laurie Price is standing in a flooded kitchen with a brush. The floor is completely brown with dirt. She is wearing a red jacket and a green t-shirt. She is in casual clothing because she is trying to clean the damage. BBC
Laurie Price has been relocated after the damage made her home uninhabitable

For most in a weather-obsessed nation, rain is par for the course - an inconvenience at worst, and something they are used to.

One family, though, exhausted and frustrated by flooding, has a different experience of wet weather. "We live our lives in fear," they say. "It's absolutely horrible." They constantly ask themselves: "Are we going to lose all our stuff again?"

But these are not people in homes built next to rivers that swell and burst their banks. They live on an estate in new homes built less than a decade ago. And they blame pipework and drainage for multiple incidents, the latest coming in September.

Housing firm David Wilson Homes Mercia insists improvements to infrastructure at the site in Hereford are being carried out.

Among those frustrated by disruption on St Peter's Field and The Orchards in Whitestone is single mother Laurie Price, who has been relocated amid repairs to her property.

She says the situation is affecting her child, who has autism.

Temporarily re-homed in nearby Marden for more than a month, she told the BBC her child had been struggling to sleep, concentrate and function.

"He asks to go home all the time," she said. "He slept for about two hours a night maximum for the first four weeks."

Michelle Watkins and her mother Pam Tovey. They are standing on their front drive. Pam is on the left wearing glasses and a blue jumper. Michelle is wearing earrings and a has a black and red jacket on.
Pam Tovey's flooding experience has been frustrating her daughter Michelle Watkins

The account of living in fear comes from Michelle Watkins. The home of her mother Pam Tovey was also hit in September, almost immediately after she had finished fixing damage from a previous flood.

"It makes me sad because we're all trying to work together to have a lovely home and a lovely place to live," Ms Watkins said.

"It just gets destroyed in seconds and we're all in fear of when it rains. Are we going to flood again?"

Six residents standing outside their newbuild homes. They are looking unhappily at the camera. A number of random possessions like trainers and plant pots are scattered around their feet.
Residents have expressed concerns about maintenance

Residents believe a drainage pipe, purpose-built to alleviate flooding from a nearby field, is not functioning as intended.

They also expressed worries it was not being maintained properly.

When the BBC last visited, the pipe was covered in overgrowth which has since been cleared.

"It's not adequate," Ms Price said of the maintenance. "It can't hold the water that comes off the field. There was just a river."

A close up of brown flooded floor and dirt that is in the kitchen.
Residents blame pipework for turning their area into a "river"

A spokesperson for David Wilson Homes Mercia said: “Works to improve the eastern ditch started on Monday 4 November 2024 and are now substantially complete.

"We will proceed with the construction of a new wall to the southern end of the ditch as soon as we have approval from the council."

They added: “A camera survey of the existing underground pipework is due to start on Tuesday 12 November 2024 and we will undertake any repairs if an issue is identified.”

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