Flooding: The last few weeks have brought a succession of storms across the country bringing flooding to many parts. It was particularly bad in our area on 18th/19th October. Traveling around our Division I came across flooding on all our many roads as well as many minor ones. Pontesbury, Minsterley, Welshpool and Churchstoke were also hit.
Three action points from this:
i. Worthen with Shelve Parish Council are going to order additional sandbags and flood sacks for Worthen and store them away from Millstream. They are setting a central storage point and an action group from residents.
ii. I am going to renew my efforts for work to be done on the streams in Worthen and Brockton. I have been pushing for action here for months but getting Shropshire Council to act is extremely difficult (we only have 2 flood officers left for the whole County). We need agreement between the Council, Environment Agency and Natural Resources England before the EA will issue a licence to clear sections of stream and it has to be done at specific times of the year.
iii. Most importantly can you please tell me of ANY flooding problems you may have had especially if they threatened your home? I need evidence to badger to Shropshire Council on gullies that have not been emptied and a host of other causes of flooding
Sewage: The flooding has also caused the sewage system to overflow in some places. Please let me know about these too.
Shropshire Council Finances: Many of you will have seen the BBC report on Shropshire’s finances the other night. The savings for this year are £51 million and the gap in the budget for next year stands at£24 million A combination of local mismanagement and poor funding from Central has led to the Council having to cut back on services which in turn leads to lousy roads, blocked drains and floods.
Hope School site: Cornovii, Shropshire Council’s Housing Developer, pulled out from building of this site because of drainage issues a while ago. As we go to press the Council has put the site on the market for possible development.
The North West Relief Road – many of you have contacted to give your views on this road which will link the bypass around the north of Shrewsbury. The news is that it passed through the first stages of planning but needs to return for the conditions to be put in place. The business case is yet to be brought forward and there are a number of other hurdles. We are a long way from it being a done deal at present.
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