Pensioner whose toilet ‘exploded’ during floods still can’t go home one year later

By Hannah Neary, Local Democracy Reporter

An elderly lady whose toilet exploded during the London floods says she is still not able to go home a year later.

Marion Gettleson said the way she has been treated by Kensington and Chelsea council is “utterly disgraceful” and she has been “completely ignored” since her property was flooded with sewage and destroyed in 2021.

Many London boroughs flooded on July 12 and 25 last year after periods of unusually heavy rainfall.

Studies have since found there was more than a month’s worth of rain in just over an hour on July 12, and drains were overwhelmed.

Marion, who is in her 70s, previously told MyLondon she was forced to leave her basement flat after it flooded on July 12, 2021.

She told councillors at a meeting on Wednesday of last week: “I was inside my home, I heard the loo gurgle and then it exploded – out of the lavatory out of the shower, out of the sinks, and out of the manholes. 

“I called someone down to help me. I was barefoot in my nightgown and dressing gown because I wasn’t well, in the rain outside for two hours.”

Over a year later, Marion still cannot return to her basement flat. She said: “I’ve been completely ignored by everyone and I’m so angry… I would like to wring someone’s neck – any volunteers?

“How dare any organisation treat members of the public the way I’ve been treated and think that they can get away with it. I have had no support from councillors, from anybody, whatsoever.

“As far as my feeling is, if I’d dropped dead it would have made life easier for the council and everybody to do with this. It’s utterly disgraceful.”

About 1,500 properties across the city were damaged by the floods, with 340 homes and businesses hit in Kensington and Chelsea on July 12, a report by the council said.

The report also said many elderly and vulnerable people struggled to get out of their homes safely on the day of the flooding and have since suffered from poor housing conditions.

It added: “Many had to be housed in temporary accommodation and have found it very stressful travelling back and forth to their flooded property to arrange repairs, while still going to work and looking after their family.”

Marion said she believes the flooding was so intense in Portobello Road because local gullies hadn’t been cleared. She said: “This was a disaster waiting to happen.”

Marion, who has lived in Kensington and Chelsea for 60 years, said residents are treated differently in different parts of the borough.

She added: “What happens in Labour wards isn’t what happens in long-term Tory wards in this borough… I have noticed it all my life.”

Conservative Kensington and Chelsea councillor Hamish Adourian said: “Across the borough, we have equal investment and equal opportunity.”

He added: “We shall continue to do our best to put in recommendations to improve everyone’s lives in the borough. That’s a role that we do on this working group, which is cross-party.”

Pictured top: Kensington and Chelsea town hall (Picture: Hannah Neary)