A FLOOD victim from Springvale, who was left with a huge crater in his back garden after a culvert exploded, has finally got the council to pay for the repairs - a year after it happened.
Andy Hirst, of Sheffield Road, fought for months to get the council to do the repairs and even asked for the help of MP Mick Clapham when he was told he should pay for the damage.
The council, the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water told Mr Hirst he was responsible for the part of the culvert that was on his land but in March the council made a U-turn and agreed to pay for it.
The repairs costing tens of thousands of pounds were finally carried out by council workers last month and were completed just after the anniversary of the explosion.
Andy said: "If I hadn't bombarded the council with letters and phone calls I wouldn't have got anything done. It was only when Mick Clapham got involved that it tipped the scales in my favour.
"The lads who came to do the work were fantastic. All I ever wanted was an end result and now I have one and I'm grateful but I feel sorry for other people in this situation."
The council's drainage department eventually conceded that a grate had been left off and waste put down the culvert had caused the explosion. The department is now pressing for the culvert to be adopted by the Environment Agency.
"It has been running for 100 years with no problems but if people keep putting rubbish down there it will happen again," Andy added.
