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Radcliffe flooding affects traffic and homes

24/01/2008

Traffic and Metrolink services have been disrupted in north Manchester due to flash flooding.

A section of Bury Road in Radcliffe has been shut and Metrolink tram drivers have been told to cut their speed after a seven-foot deep pool of water burst over an embankment.

As well as causing transport problems, a dozen homes have been flooded and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue have been on the scene since the early hours.

Water is now being pumped from the road and the council has put sandbags outside around 30 houses.

Tim Eaton, watch commander at Whitefield fire station, told the Lancashire Telegraph: "We've been pumping the floodwater from Rigby Avenue on to Bury Road.

"The problem is that the drains on Bury Road are not designed to cope with that amount of floodwater."

Earlier this week, the River Irwell and River Roch burst their banks, and the West Coast Mainline was affected by water flooding from fields onto tracks.