Drainage would seem to be a problem for the neighbour on the left of the photo too. Land drains and soakaways might help reduce the problem but that in itself would be a fairly major engineering project.
One possible alternative might be to dig a sump below the patio and install a pump and pipework to move water to the main drain. Without more knowledge of the mains drainage it's not possible to say how practical that would be.
What is your garden made up of? I can see a lot of patio slab area in the foreground, but what is further out?
It may not seem good to be pumping it , but I can't see that the authorities would object that strongly in an emergency situation? Rather than flood the house!
Is there anything that can be done to get the gully reinstated? Maybe if all the affected neighbours got together, you could persuade the culprit to do something about it?
Seems an excellent point Jennyj. I would actually speak to the water company whoever deals with drains. They might actually have a useful suggestion seeing as they might be facing several people wanting to Also contacting the Environment agency, they might take a dim view of culverts being removed/blocked, or be able to say if it should be reinstated? Speak to your local councillor and getting them on side too might help.
A few phone calls won't cost much time and effort, before you consider a more DIY approach.
@Rubytoo beyond the patio is a large area of blue slate chippings.
I've been in touch with the council in the past regarding this problem and have had zero response; contacting United Utilities (my water company) was almost as pointless; they directed me back to the council. Environment Agency was equally as uninformative, as I never even got a response to my query from them.
@JennyJ apparently, from what I've been told the gully was blocked a long time ago - the current owners of the property in question may not even be aware of the issue; I've certainly never seen a significant amount of surface water accumulation in their garden as far as I can remember.
I've arranged to have a surveyor from a garden drainage specialist come and see what's going on, then hopefully a decision can be made as to what to do. Once that's done, I will try again with the appropriate authorities before committing to anything drastic.
Looks like to much hard surface areas everywhere now a days that's what's causing most floods around housing estates. Good luck hope the council can help you in some way.
The soil makeup doesn't help either; it's all heavy clay which, as any gardener can tell you, is not conducive to good drainage anyway. I just hope that a solution is within reach...
Trouble with clay is that if it dries out too much it can shrink and potentially cause subsidence problems. The surveyor should be able to work out what's what and come up with suggestions, and they should also know (or be able to find out) what the legal position is regarding the blocked-off gully.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
From what I can see from both your garden and those around you, there is an excess of hard landscaping meaning the water is running off all the hard surfaces and the open ground that is still available is too small to soak up the run off. There is decking to the garden to the left, and also patio covering at least half the garden to the right. It looks like also that the right garden has astro turf which won't help for drainage. The outbuildings in the other gardens won't help because they aren't likely to have guttering so the water will add to the run off and not going to a water drain. Finally, there are hardly any tress and shrubs in any of the gardens so there is nothing to soak up the water. It all adds and although it might not have been an issue in the past, it has obviously reached a tipping point and the causing the problems you're now experiencing. You could try and work a solution for you but it might be a solution involving your neighbours to stop it getting worse, otherwise its going to simply be a sticking plaster solution.
Very hard to solve this problem. If you have drainage then the two neighbouring gardens would pool into your also.
An idea would be to construct a raised deck roughly 300/400mm from ground level - depending on your door threshold. I know it only hides the problem but it is a solution.
I concur with Tim Burr regarding excessive impermeable landscaping and lack of vegetation making matters worse. You could construct a high, wide raised bed right across the back and plant some trees and shrubs, which would help to absorb rainfall and suck up some of the ground water, plus provide a nice privacy screen to hide those houses at the back. Dig over the clay really well first, then add lots of grit to the topsoil/organic material you fill it with.
Be interesting to hear what the drainage expert says, I hope you find a solution.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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I can see a lot of patio slab area in the foreground, but what is further out?
It may not seem good to be pumping it , but I can't see that the authorities would object that strongly in an emergency situation?
Rather than flood the house!
Seems an excellent point Jennyj.
I would actually speak to the water company whoever deals with drains. They might actually have a useful suggestion seeing as they might be facing several people wanting to
Also contacting the Environment agency, they might take a dim view of culverts being removed/blocked, or be able to say if it should be reinstated?
Speak to your local councillor and getting them on side too might help.
A few phone calls won't cost much time and effort, before you consider a more DIY approach.
I've been in touch with the council in the past regarding this problem and have had zero response; contacting United Utilities (my water company) was almost as pointless; they directed me back to the council. Environment Agency was equally as uninformative, as I never even got a response to my query from them.
@JennyJ apparently, from what I've been told the gully was blocked a long time ago - the current owners of the property in question may not even be aware of the issue; I've certainly never seen a significant amount of surface water accumulation in their garden as far as I can remember.
I've arranged to have a surveyor from a garden drainage specialist come and see what's going on, then hopefully a decision can be made as to what to do. Once that's done, I will try again with the appropriate authorities before committing to anything drastic.
An idea would be to construct a raised deck roughly 300/400mm from ground level - depending on your door threshold. I know it only hides the problem but it is a solution.
Be interesting to hear what the drainage expert says, I hope you find a solution.