Blocked drains on Kings Road near Richmond Park brought flooding to at least one home in the area after heavy rains in recent days.

Kingston resident Joanna Mitchell told the Surrey Comet water had risen into her cellar last week after drains became blocked on the outskirts of Richmond Park near to the Kingston Gate.

"Water started rising in the cellar of my house and being the weekend it was hard to find out how to get this remedied," she said.

"The constant stream of water, even when rain stops, has led to solid blockages to drains in the top part of Kings Road.

"The consequence of this has now meant that residents are finding water rising up into their properties," Joanna added.

This Is Local London: Blocked drains on Kings Road near Richmond Park caused flooding at at least one home nearby recently. Image: Joanna Mitchell Blocked drains on Kings Road near Richmond Park caused flooding at at least one home nearby recently. Image: Joanna Mitchell

The government's Flood Information Service issued flood warnings for low-lying areas in Kingston and Richmond last week, but Joanna suggested that a lack of action on behalf of authorities in the area could have contributed to the situation.

The Surrey Comet approached Kingston Council (RBK) for a comment on the problem.

A spokesperson responded with the following statement:

"The gullies in Kings Road are scheduled to be cleaned once every two years, in line with the service standard across the borough, and were last cleaned in February 2020, which is within the two year cleaning schedule.

"Further to the flooding issue raised, we have referred this to our street cleaning contractors for their gully cleaning crew to attend to check and clean the drains..."

The council said the drains would be cleaned on Thursday (February 4), and Royal Parks suggested they had also been attended to earlier last week:

"Following prolonged heavy rain there were a number of blocked drains near Kingston Gate at the weekend.

"These were cleared on Monday morning," a spokesperson said.

Joanna for her part suggested that a more regular cleaning of the drains in question could help residents who might face future flooding problems in the future, though it was unclear whether Kingston Council would be responsive to that suggestion.