Tynwald Close resident says estate flooding has gone unresolved for years

Water rising through the road surface on Tynwald Close in St John’s has been running towards gardens for several years, a resident has told Isle of Man Today. They said this has continued despite repeated complaints to government departments and elected representatives.

The Department of Infrastructure (DoI) has confirmed it knows about the problem and has looked into it before. It said it is now making further enquiries into where the water is coming from.

The resident, who did not want to be named, said water routinely pools along the road and spills over the kerbs. They said it was not limited to heavy rain. “We’ve experienced it during prolonged dry periods, including the summer,” they told the newspaper.

They described the water as sometimes grey and foul-smelling, with bubbles that looked oily. They said that in summer it smelled like raw sewage.

According to Isle of Man Today, a member of the DoI’s Highways Maintenance Group wrote to the resident in January 2025. The letter explained that the estate’s road gullies drain into soakaways, not into a highway drainage system linked to the public sewer. The resident said the correspondence accepted that the soakaways were no longer working as they should.

The resident has raised concerns that household waste water could be getting into the surface-water drains. The newspaper reported that later correspondence with the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) indicated Manx Utilities had found multiple instances of household greywater wrongly connected to surface-water drainage.

The resident said they had been in touch with the DoI, DEFA, the local commissioners and their MHKs. They had sent photographs recording the flooding over time, but said they had been asked repeatedly to supply more. They said it was still unclear who would pay for and carry out a lasting repair.

“I’m not expecting an overnight solution, but I do think residents deserve proper answers,” they said.

A DoI spokesperson said investigations had so far not shown that the problem stems from the highway drainage. Although there are road gullies on the estate, the spokesperson said the drainage arrangements and connections serving the area need more investigation.

The spokesperson said that, because of the concerns raised, the department is making enquiries with housing colleagues, DEFA’s Environmental Protection team and Manx Utilities. Those concerns include reports that the water may be contaminated.

The department said it could not say what is causing the problem, or who is responsible for any repairs, until that work is finished. It said it would keep working with the other agencies to decide what action is needed.