Safety work after Elstree residents urged fix for dangerous icy road

Work has taken place to fix a water leak onto a road which froze and caused a motorcyclist to crash.

The water run-off from private land in Elstree, Hertfordshire, and onto Elstree Hill South, started in December.

A petition by residents called on Hertfordshire County Council to take action as the leak was "a real and present danger to human life".

The council said work to reduce and stop the leak began on Thursday.

A spokesperson explained: "Our property team carried out works on the land the water was coming from [Thursday] morning to alleviate the issue and prevent further water running onto the road and pavement."

Elstree resident Natasha Sinfield said she made Affinity Water, Thames Water and the county council aware of the issue on 9 December.

Hertfordshire Police confirmed a motorcyclist was injured on the road at 23:45 GMT on 10 January.

Officers at the scene reported the ice on road to the county council's highways department.

The petition said the injured motorcyclist was left with seven broken ribs after he skidded on the ice and that he remained in hospital.

Thames Water said engineers would "investigate over the coming days".

A spokesperson said: "We received reports of external sewer flooding in Elstree Hill South on 16 January and we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused."

Labour councillor Dan Ozarow, from Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council, said failure to address the issue has been "appalling".

The petition, started by Mr Ozarow, gained 100 signatures from residents within 24 hours.

"We now need to keep the pressure on to get the stream of the leak cut off completely," he said.

Initially, Affinity Water agreed to investigate but then said the source was "a Thames Water leak and a council issue with drainage."

It said the leak was "a result of drainage water from an overflow in catchment pond water."

"Although we can't fix the problem, we have made this a priority to contact Thames Water and the local council for them to get the drainage system flowing again," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: "We are always sorry to hear of any accidents that take place on the roads of Hertfordshire.

"As soon as we were made aware of the issues at Elstree Hill South, our highways engineers went to investigate.

"Highways maintenance teams made the site safe and have been ensuring extra grit is laid in this area on each gritting run," they said.

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