VIDEO: Two-month battle to get loose drain in Horsham road fixed

JPCT 060315 S15081519x Ruth McGeown Noise pollution, trying to get grate fixed outside her house in Parsonage Road on the corner of the roundabout -photo by Steve Cobb SUS-150603-160309001

Every time a vehicle drives directly over the manhole cover in Parsonage Road, on the mini roundabout with the junction of Parsonage Way and Foundry Lane, residents hear a loud ‘piercing’ metal sound.

Ruth McGeown has spent the last two months trying to establish who is responsible for fixing the grate and has been passed back and forth between West Sussex County Council and Southern Water.

After originally being contacted about the problem in January WSCC started to repair the grate on Wednesday March 11.

She said: “I understand there’s a level of bureaucracy in these sort of things but I just feel that both sides, Southern Water and the council, knew what the problem was but nobody was prepared to take responsibility for it.”

While it can be heard in most of the house, the noise has particularly affected the level of sleep one of her sons is getting, as his bedroom faces on to the road.

The family first noticed the noise in the winter and said it became steadily louder leading up to Christmas.

Ruth originally contacted West Sussex County Council in mid-January who passed her on to Southern Water, who after taking two-and-a-half weeks fixed a different drain in the same road, before telling her the county council was in fact responsible for that particular drain. The council then passed it back to Southern Water, who passed it back to the council.

Father of two David Davis another Parsonage Road resident who has also been pushing for the manhole cover to repaired, and described the noise as ‘piercing’, and a ‘low level annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless’.

He added: “This is driving us crazy. We are reporting it but they do not seem to be able to co-ordinate a response and be able to figure out who is responsible for it.”

He felt ‘frustrated’ at a lack of an initial response from the county council when he took the time to report the broken drain.

Speaking on Monday a spokesperson for West Sussex County Council said: “We are just waiting on our contractor to give us a date to schedule when the repair work gets done.”

Southern Water was approached for a comment but a spokesperson said the manhole cover was the responsibility of the county council.