'Pathetic': Severn Trent and Shropshire Council criticised over flood response
The response to the weekend floods has been criticised as “totally inadequate” by a Shropshire councillor.
Large swathes of the county were subjected to torrential rain on Saturday, leaving many roads impassable and some areas completely under water.
Councillor Heather Kidd, who represents Chirbury and Worthen, praised the work of Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service but said Shropshire Council and Severn Trent Water failed to help the most vulnerable.
She said she had spent hours trying to contact the council and the water firm on Saturday morning as the county buckled under the strain of torrential downpours.
She said: “It was totally pathetic. I spent most of Saturday morning trying to get some assistance for vulnerable residents in my ward only to repeatedly hit a brick wall.
"This is simply not good enough, action needs to be taken before lives are lost.”
In the Worthen area the B4386 was blocked by flood water in several places, while in the village itself, the stream burst its banks and threatened to flood sheltered housing.
Councillor Kidd said raw sewage also backed up into people’s gardens.
She said she was told by Shropshire Council customer services that she could have sandbags if she could collect them herself – despite the road being blocked.
"I'm grateful that the fire brigade helped and flagged down a highways vehicle who dropped off some bags," she said.
"But this is not the first time we have been faced with this. The first was a few years ago when I rang to ask to get a road closed because a bridge was falling into the water.
"It is pretty clear that none of these organisations had any effective contingency planning to deal with threats to vulnerable people in extreme weather episodes like we have just experienced.
"We are facing more extreme weather events like this in the future as the climate changes.
WATCH: Severn bursts its banks in Shropshire
"When we have events such as this rain there are bound to be glitches and hold ups but I do expect that the public have a set of clear and effective contacts that they can ring."
A Severn Trent spokesman said: “We’re really sorry to any customers who may have experienced difficulties getting through to us over the weekend.
"The amount of rainfall we had, in such a short amount of time, meant there was an increase in the number of calls from customers with concerns about flooding, making the phone lines and web chat busier than normal.”
Shropshire Council has been contacted for comment.
