VIDEO: Puddle trouble has me mopping up every time it rains, says salon boss

A BEAUTY salon owner has said her shop is left looking "disgusting" every time it rains because water floods in under the door.

Harpinder Kaur said that as traffic passes her shop in Normanton Road rainwater washes inside from puddles which gather in dips in the street.

CCTV footage inside Harps hair and beauty salon, in Normanton Road. The centre of the image shows rainwater flowing in underneath the door.
Harpinder Kaur outside her salon in Normanton. Because of dips in Normanton Road, puddles form and rainwater is washed inside by passing traffic.

The 48-year-old said she had first complained to Derby City Council as long ago as 2011 but so far nothing had been done to deal with the problem, which the authority described as a "nuisance" rather than a safety risk.

Mrs Kaur said her shop – Harps Beauty Salon – specialised in beauty treatment, manicures and hairdressing and that the mud and water left behind was off-putting for customers.

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She said: "I have run this shop since 2010. Whenever it rains, big puddles form in the road right outside the shop. My shop is closer to the road than others and when cars drive past my windows get splashed with dirty water.

"But the main problem is water coming into the shop.

"It's not like it is fully flooded but I have to mop up all the time just to keep it clean. My customers are trying to have beauty treatment and they see me mopping all the time.

"It doesn't look good, it looks disgusting. It doesn't look professional"

Mrs Kaur said a representative from the council visited the summer of 2011. "He came in and said he was in charge of the road," said Mrs Kaur. "He said he had come to see the extent of the problem.

"I didn't hear anything after this so I phoned the council regularly and in January 2012 I spoke to the same man and he said he had not yet spoken to his seniors.

"But meanwhile I still have the same problem."

She said the tiles on her floor were non-slip so there was no risk of anyone falling.

"But every time it rains it is the same thing – splash, splash, splash, all over the windows and the rainwater coming in under the door.

"If I was in India I would be able to fix the road myself but here I can't, so I don't know what to do."

David Bartram, head of highways and engineering at Derby City Council, said: "Normanton Road has a monthly safety inspection and while we are aware of the surface water ponding issues in certain locations, none of them are above our safety intervention levels.

"We do recognise that surface water ponding is a nuisance, especially when exasperated by traffic splashing through it.

"With this in mind we have included Normanton Road in our programme for full reconstruction. We originally planned to complete the project in the financial year 2013-14 but due to funding constraints this has had to be pushed back into 2014-15."