Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

Scottish Water

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Not Upheld Reference 201305967 Sector Water Category sewer flooding - external Decided 01 October 2014

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Full decision

Summary

Mr C experienced external flooding at his property in early 2014. This had happened before, and in 2010 Scottish Water had put a plan in place to address the problem, which included removing tree roots and regularly checking the section of sewer that was causing the flooding. Mr C felt that this plan was not working, and he wanted a permanent solution to the matter. He complained to us that Scottish Water failed to replace the sewer part that had tree roots in it.

Our investigation considered the actions Scottish Water had already taken and what they proposed to do in order to permanently resolve this. We found that Scottish Water had been thorough in responding to Mr C's complaint. As well as their ongoing maintenance of the affected area over the years, they had recently replaced a section of sewer larger than that the survey had suggested. We also found that Scottish Water had been proactive in finding a long term solution, and planned to resolve the external flooding problem in Mr C's street in 2015, in conjunction with another project to resolve internal flooding issues nearby. We considered their actions to be reasonable in the circumstances and did not uphold Mr C's complaint.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201305967 as a PDF (11.14 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

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