The mayor of St Neots, Cllr Stephen Ferguson, has updated The Hunts Post on his plans to tackle drainage issues in the town - which he hopes will alleviate some future flooding.
St Neots suffered two large scale flooding incidents in August and December 2020 and residents were forced to evacuate their homes as water levels rose.
In December 2020 a FOI request, revealed that the drains in St Neots had not been cleared for five years.
A Facebook group called St Neots Drain Watch was set up by member of the public Tim Wylie, where people can share their reports of flooding and any issues they have raised with Cambridgeshire County Council about problems with drains.
Last week, Cllr Ferguson met with a flooding officer from Cambridgeshire County Council and they spend some time in Fox Brook and Hen Brook in St Neots to better understand the locations where flooding occurred.
Councillor Ferguson said: “In August 2020 we first had flooding and after that me and Tim started working out it was a drainage issue.
“Tim opened an FoI request to the county council which said they hadn’t cleared the drains in five years.
“After that the CCC have committed to clearing all the drains, but that wasn’t done in time for the flooding that happened over Christmas as well.”
“Last week Tim and I met up with a flooding officer from Cambridge County Council and we walked through Hen Brook and Fox Brook looking at the problems in drainage there.
“This was really good to be honest and I now feel we have that connection with CCC and we can now move forward in terms of what we can all further do to prevent future flooding.”
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council said: “Last week, a flood risk officer from the council’s Flood Risk & Biodiversity Team met with Cllr Ferguson as part of the council’s investigation of the extreme rainfall in December last year.
“The meeting was a very useful opportunity to better understand the locations where flooding occurred and how it impacted on the wider community in St Neots.
“This includes extra drain clearing at all known risk sites, including St Neots, and providing both active and practical support to mitigate flooding and improve communication to assist local communities and residents if flooding occurs.”
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