Flooding causes chaos in Wirral

Sep 26 2012 by Linda Foo Guest, Heswall News

ROADS turned into rivers as a month’s worth of heavy rain caused flooding in Wirral, leaving people stranded and trains cancelled.

Monday’s downpour even resulted in an hour-long police operation to rescue youngsters trapped at Jack and Jill Nursery by floods in Brimstage Lane, Brimstage.

The waters swelled so high a silver BMW police car became stuck and had to be towed by a recovery truck.

The 10 children were finally reunited with their parents.

A mum who waited patiently to collect her three-year-old son said: “We didn’t have to wait too long – it was a smooth and quick operation. ”

The flooding stretched over a 400m length of Brimstage Lane and in parts was 4-5ft deep. Resident Gary Hewitt was stranded in his house and could not get to work for his night shift.

Several other roads were badly affected including Neston Road in Thornton Hough, while a 100m stretch of nearby Thornton Common Road was flooded with 1ft of water. In Barnston Road, Barnston, cars struggled to get across at least 1ft of water.

Rail passengers did not escape the misery with some Wirral services off since Monday afternoon.

Trains on the Chester and Ellesmere Port lines could only go as far Rock Ferry after tracks beyond Hooton were flooded by the persistent downpour.

As the Wirral News went to press, a Merseyrail spokesman said the problem was expected to continue while the rain still fell.

The Met Office forecast the heavy rain would continue to fall until the early hours of Wednesday.