Pinxton: Family living in caravan on driveway outside flood-hit home

A family will spend Christmas in a caravan on their driveway after their home in Derbyshire was "ruined" by flooding during Storm Babet.

Colin Wright's home in Pinxton was badly damaged when heavy rainwater battered the village in October.

He said the downstairs of his property became deluged in flood water.

Mr Wright, his partner Lynette Brown, their daughter and six cats will be living in a caravan outside the house for the foreseeable future.

He said he refused the option of being provided alternative accommodation by his insurer, so purchased the caravan so he could "keep an eye on" his house.

"I was living in my house until it got flooded about eight weeks ago," said Mr Wright, who works as a locksmith and window cleaner.

"All of downstairs is completely ruined. Everything is gone - there's nothing left downstairs at all.

"[Living in the caravan] is cold, it's noisy, you hear the cars coming back and the rain on the roof wakes you up. But we've just got to manage."

His property has been undergoing major repairs since the floods and work was set to be completed in four to six months' time.

Mr Wright said the flooding was caused in part by blocked drains during the deluge, and has called for answers from Derbyshire County Council and Severn Trent Water.

The family added they had been told pipes leading to their home were "too small", but Severn Trent refuted the claim.

He added: "I think [the flooding] definitely could have been avoided if people had done their job properly and the drains were sorted and they'd stopped building in the village.

"It'll happen again if it rains heavily and the drains get blocked up again and the sewage water comes through.

"There's nothing I can do until Severn Trent and [the council] get together and work these drains out."

A statement from Derbyshire County Council said it was planning to work with "all the relevant organisations" to solve the issue of flooding.

The authority added: "It is not clear where the flooding is coming from, so we are bringing together all the relevant organisations, ourselves, Severn Trent and the Environment Agency in the new year to understand what is happening, and what we can do working together to solve this problem."

A Severn Trent spokesperson added: "We can reassure everyone that the wastewater pipe does not reduce in size between the address and our recycling works, and everything flows as it should."

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