A senior Liverpool City Council officer has admitted they ‘failed to act’ on a flooding hotspot that led to the deaths of a Mossley Hill couple.
Philip and Elaine Marco lost their lives on August 26, 2023 after their car became submerged in flash flooding under a railway bridge on Queens Drive.
The council’s head of highways management Andy Bithell acknowledged the authority did not consider a risk to life based on the information available.
At the inquest into the couple’s deaths, Mr Bithell described the rainfall on the fateful evening as ‘monsoon level’ with about 80mm falling within an hour.
The Met Office had issued a yellow weather warning while four previous incidents of flooding had occurred on Queens Drive between May and July.
Vehicles had become stranded and people needed to be rescued with one of the occasions was described as a ‘one in 412-year event’.
On August 15, United Utilities held a meeting with the Merseyside Flood Risk Coordinator to update them on £15,000 worth of sewer cleaning in the area.
But Mr Bithell it would not be feasible to base road closures on Met Office warnings.
He did, however, accept that the council had been more reactive than proactive to events prior to the fatalities in terms of reducing risk.
When asked by Anthony Metzer KC, counsel for the Marcos’ family, if it ‘took fatalities before the council would do anything?’, Mr Bithell replied: ‘Regretfully, yes’.
The inquest at Gerard Majella Courthouse also heard that Mr Marco, 77, had attempted to seek help through the SOS system in his Mercedes vehicle.