Council to act on car park floods

From the archive, first published Wednesday 15th Jan 2003.

Oxford City Council has been praised by traders for promising to carry out an estimated £7,000 worth of work to stop a Headington car park flooding.

Heavy rain often means old drains at the car park behind the Somerfield supermarket on Old High Street overflow.

Parking for drivers visiting the shops in London Road becomes almost impossible as most of the surrounding roads have either double-yellow lines or restricted parking.

The council is due to start work soon to install more modern drains.

Michael Ponting, chairman of Headington Business Association, contacted Oxford City Council.

He said: "I'm quite pleased with the council.

"It will mean some major work because part of the problem starts when the drains get blocked. The council will have to dig them out and re-do them."

Colin Sheriff, Somerfield store manager, said: "It definitely needs doing. When it floods, half the car park can end up under water."

Bob Peedell, the council's car parks administration manager, said: "We need to build new drains.

"The work is due to start any time now. We were going start in December, but the shopkeepers didn't want the parking spaces to be lost in the busy run-up to Christmas."