Bucknell councillor urges county council to act fast and solve flooding puzzle

Responding to repeated flooding in Bucknell, most recently following a spell of heavy rain, county councillor for the area Nigel Hartin said: "We have had repeated incidents of flooding in the area around Bucknell station as well as in the village centre over the last few weeks, causing damage to property and disruption to traffic.

"Shropshire Council have spent considerable time on-site over the last week, finally identifying damage to the storm drains in the vicinity by using a camera to investigate the damage, which is significant, and are currently working up a repair plan.

"It is unfortunate however, that this investigation work was not done during the seven flooding incidents last year and the five flood incidents this year.

"There has been considerable pressure both from myself as the local Shropshire councillor and from Jonathan Kemp, chair of the parish council, to council officers (including the chief executive, head of highways and drainage officers) to get the council to move quickly now that it's identified the problem.

"I arranged on Friday last week for the council's principal drainage and highways engineers to meet us in the village to look at plans to renew drainage along Bedstone Road (which currently entails the proposed closure of Bedstone Road from August 31 until September 18) as well as the drainage issue outside the shop."

Compensation

Cllr Hartin continued: "We spent all afternoon and early evening on site at the shop in Bucknell, with WSP principal engineer Steve Roberts, John Bellis, drainage and flood manager from Shropshire Council, Steve Ash from highways, contractors Keir and two other engineers, plus jetting/cutting trucks and crews over the course of the day trying to find the problem.

"They have cleared as much as they can but most of the drainage system in the area is badly damaged by collapsed pipes and tree roots, vegetation et cetera. The area around the shop flooded again on Saturday but luckily with no water ingress into properties.

"Unfortunately, due to having to potentially involve Network Rail in repairs to drains running under the railway, nothing is likely to happen overnight, even with the current closure of the Heart of Wales line.

"However, in the meantime both myself and Jonathan are in personal contact with the chief executive and the leader of Shropshire Council respectively to see if and how the council can assist the proprietors with funding to cover the clean up costs in the short term and to investigate ways in which we can keep a service like that currently provided going.

"The leader of Shropshire Council is coming down on September 11 by which time it's to be hoped council engineers will have had sufficient time to come up with a way forward which fixes the problem and provides compensation for the damage caused so far."