A DUMBARTON mum has hit out at one of the UK’s biggest house builders over persistent drainage problems at her home in the town.

Ainsley Donoghue and her partner moved into their Taylor Wimpey home in Glen Lochy Court, on the Fairways estate near Lomondgate, in June 2014 – but said that after that first summer, the couple have encountered repeated drainage problems in their back garden.

She said that after years of attempting to fix the problems, it still takes up to three days for the back garden area to dry out after heavy rain.

Ainsley contacted the Reporter after a family member read a story about drainage issues at a new Taylor Wimpey property in Helensburgh in our sister title, the Helensburgh Advertiser.

Ainsley said: “It was a decent summer, and our grass began to come through.

“Then it rained and rained, as it does in Scotland, and we discovered that our garden was actually a mud pit. We had to wear wellies in the garden – at one point my ankle was under water.

“I’ve had countless conversations with Taylor Wimpey and they aerated the garden. That didn’t work. They installed ‘channels’, digging down about 150mm from the surface and putting stones in. Still didn’t work.

“The contractors they had at the time advised us that none of this would work and that our garden needed a complete overhaul.

“Taylor Wimpey refused and offered more aeration. We said no. It wasn’t working and when I asked them to clean up the mess from the last time they did it, they informed my neighbours about how ‘awkward’ I was being.”

Ainsley said she eventually resorted to putting down slabs and chipped bark so that her son could play outside – but that the slabs, too, were ending up under water and the bark was “stodgy” after spells of rain.

“The garden looks OK,” she said, “but it’s still, at times, heartbreaking because it takes about three days to dry out before it’s suitable for use.

“I don’t understand why Taylor Wimpey would make these lovely family homes and then make such a mess of the garden to the point that if we want to use it we need to pay thousands of pounds to do so.

“If I didn’t want to use my garden I’d have bought a flat or something.”

Taylor Wimpey told the Reporter that in general, house builders are responsible for ensuring the first three metres of a garden are free of standing water and that anything outwith that distance is down to the property owner.

A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey West Scotland said: “We are aware of a historical issue in relation to garden drainage that was raised by a homeowner at The Fairways in Dumbarton in 2018, and we agreed to resolve the issues they were experiencing.

“As a responsible homebuilder we are committed to working with any customer who contacts us to investigate the concerns they raise with us.”