Flood Victim Family Finally Accommodated After Five Nights ‘Sofa-Surfing’

Published on: 30 Dec, 2013
Updated on: 28 Oct, 2019

Trevor West, his partner Vanessa Sewell and their three daughters, outside their uninhabitable Walnut Tree Close home.

A family of five including three young children have been found temporary accommodation this evening five days after being forced out of the Walnut Tree Close council-owned property on Christmas Day.

Having been unable to get through to any council or emergency services that were able to offer help, Vanessa Sewell, in desperation, contacted The Guildford Dragon NEWS for help.

The Dragon alerted Cllr Caroline Reeves (Lib Dem Friary & St Nicolas) who visited the family in Walnut Tree Close within minutes. Contact was then made via council leader Cllr Stephen Mansbridge (Con, South Ash & Tongham) to the relevant, emergency cover, officers at Millmead.

This evening the family are being accommodated in two rooms in the Travel Lodge in Woodbridge Meadows until January 6. Other families in the same predicament have, it is understood, already been accommodated there or elsewhere.

Ms Sewell, who was close to tears when she spoke to Dragon NEWS and Cllr Reeves said: “I am so glad you have responded. I did not know who else to turn to.”

I am so glad you have responded. I did not know who else to turn to.

She had written earlier: “Having been made homeless due to the flood water reaching my home late Christmas Eve, forcing us to leave very early Christmas Day, I personally would like to know why I have been unable to get a response from GBC [Guildford Borough Council] and why I am still without somewhere warm and safe to stay with my children.

The lowest part of the house, the kitchen, suffered the worst but all the floors on the ground floor were covered with floodwater.

“My house was one of the worst flooded in my particular row, and we took action to move our children to the only place we could. Somewhere that had no power or heating.

“I was issued with a letter of a ‘potential flood’ at 6pm, after the water had flooded my garden by the only member of the council we have seen throughout the whole ordeal. Within three hours of that letter, the water was gushing in our house and there was nothing we could do.

“We don’t drive and were instructed to get our own sandbags because, according to the council repair crew that had come to lift our fence out the way much earlier in the day, they had no one to issue the sandbags because they had been instructed to only clear trees and lift fences from 4am that morning. In previous alerts, sandbags were delivered to us as soon as the warnings were in place.

“Unlike our neighbours, the flood water was not contained within our kitchen, so we waded away from the property an hour before the official evacuation. We have since had to leave where we had sought refuge and have now split up as a family. Our children are understandably incredibly distressed.

“The only other time we know of when a council employee was made available was for the brief period of the evacuation where good Samaritans of the local area opened a community centre for the victims.

“That employee found suitable accommodation for another of the worst-hit families but we have been left stranded, with no one in authority to turn to.

“We have sought the help of: social services (homeless children isn’t a big enough crisis for them) the police (even they could not contact the council) the Salvation Army (closed), Bracknell council [who are providing the out-sourced flood emergency line], a number offered to us by GBC street crew (could not help and  referred us to Social Services) Surrey County Council (it’s not their problem its Guildford Borough Council’s), the MP (answer machine). We did reach the out of hours emergency care line at GBC prior to the evacuation and the woman didn’t even know we were being flooded.”

Trevor West with the sandbags positioned by the front door: “But the water just bubbled up through the floorboards,” he said.

Vanessa’s partner, Trevor West, said: “We have been sofa-surfing with friends since it happened and the children, who are aged 8, 7 and 5, have been with their grandparents in Dorset, 85 miles away. Both my partner and I have jobs locally. We need temporary accommodation here with our children.

“We have lived here for five years. We knew there was a flooding risk and have flood insurance. We have now been told to leave everything as it is, until the assessor sees it.

“We did move everything we could upstairs, out of reach of the water, but we couldn’t move the washing machine or the chest freezer.”

“As we were the first house of the terrace of eight to be flooded and I was running to and fro to their homes to warn them. We are at the end of the terrace and seem to have suffered more but they have all had to move out, I think.”

This evening Trevor West called The Dragon with news of the accommodation arranged by Guildford Borough Council. “We are just very relieved. Perhaps now, reunited as a family we can begin to sort things out,” he said.

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