As we come to the end of another year, it’s a good time to reflect on what has changed and what hasn’t over the past 12 months.
Time is a funny thing. Many things seem urgent; the annual repetition of some things serve as comforting placeholders. And then there are the issues that never go away. That act as a mild irritant, never quite enough to drive you to dedicate time to fixing it but which slowly, gradually wear away at you, gnawing at the soul until it gets to a point where it is no longer a small inconvenience but a symbol of something much greater and worse. Yes, we’re talking about the Putney Puddle.
For two decades, a puddle outside Sainsbury’s on Werter Road has been forcing Putney pedestrians to choose between soaked feet and stepping into traffic. The drain’s in the wrong place. Everyone knows it. Nobody fixes it.
Allan Manham has had enough. “The huge puddle that forms every time there is an appreciable amount of rain,” he told Putney.news, adding: “For at least the last 20 years.”
“It is impossible to cross for pedestrians who have the choice of either getting soaked in the attempt or risk life and limb by skirting around it in the road.”
Allan has tried everything. He’s reported it to Sainsbury’s. He’s reported it to the council. He’s tried Fix My Street. Nothing works.
The problem, it seems, is that nobody can decide whose problem it is.
The jurisdictional mystery
Is the drain on council highway land or Sainsbury’s private property? The basic principle sounds simple: property owners handle drainage within their boundaries, councils handle public highways. But a puddle at a car park entrance sits infuriatingly in the grey zone.
A 2011 law change was supposed to end this confusion. It didn’t.
Meanwhile, Allan and his neighbours have spent 20 years getting wet feet.
It could be worse
Before we despair completely, it is worth knowing that drainage disputes can get considerably more absurd.
In Somerset last year, 101-year-old Sheila Nicholls and her elderly neighbours were told by their council to fix 21 potholes themselves. The council’s reasoning? The lane is a “public right of way, not a public road,” so responsibility is “complex” and requires a “shared approach to maintenance.”
Six people had fallen. Two ended up in hospital. The average age of residents is 79. One neighbour asked the obvious question: “How can you tell a 101-year-old to fill their own potholes?”
At least Allan’s not being asked to reposition the drain himself.
Then there’s the cautionary tale from Essex, where Philip and Denise New fought their neighbours for 11 years over six inches of disputed land. The cost? £60,000. They had to remortgage their home. One solicitor noted that while people can litigate over tiny strips of land, “it is usually economic madness to do so.”
A 20-year puddle over a wrongly positioned drain? That’s practically reasonable by comparison.
The Putney Puddle
Which brings us back to Werter Road and the fundamental question: whose job is it?
Wandsworth Council’s highways team because pedestrians are being forced into the road? Sainsbury’s property managers because it’s their car park entrance? Should someone just check the boundary line and settle this?
If you’ve dealt with similar nobody’s-problem drainage disputes, or if you know how responsibility actually works here, let us know in the comments, or email us at news@putney.news.
Until someone claims it, Putney pedestrians will keep choosing between wet shoes and dodging traffic.
Shoving responsibility from one dept. to another could not be more irresponsible. The photos show clearly how dangerous the puddle is, particularly for children and elderly people. It is unacceptable to treat our most vulnerable pedestrians like that. Now I must stop writing and change out of my soaking-wet socks and shoes.