Drains can't cope.

Watching one of the morning news programmes and up popped someone standing on a road, ankle-deep in water, and talking about the rain. 'The drains haven't been able to cope' she said (or words to that effect) and I laughed like a loon - when have the drains ever coped with the rain? Unless we're talking about a light shower over in seconds puddles instantly form everywhere and just stay there.

Driving down Vale Road I could see two drains set about a car length apart, the fact I could see them should tell me they're working except for the big puddle that had formed between them. Rivers of surface water running down the roads, and huge puddles forming at every pedestrian crossing point because that's where the drains have been placed and the roads (and paths) designed to carry the water to.

I was giving my mother a lift into town and she looked at all this and said "You know I'm sure they used to go around dredging the drains every so often and I haven't seen anyone doing that in ages" So does anyone know the score on that? Is it all taking place under our feet with robo-moles scurrying though the drainage system cleaning it out, or does whoever did it before simply not bother now?