Great Wakering High Street hit by regular flooding

Rochford Tory councillor Mike Steptoe has been left frustrated by regular flooding in Great Wakering High Street and highlighted a huge pool of water yesterday morning as south Essex was hit by heavy rain.

Mr Steptoe, who represents Roche South on the district council, admits it is a “complex situation” and the road has been hit by surface water flooding for years, but fears it is becoming worse and is calling for a long-term fix to “old drains”.

He has been working with Anglian Water, Essex County Council, Rochford District Council as well as Essex and Suffolk Water on short term fixes, including clearing drains and finding blockages.

He said: “It has been an ongoing issue with road flooding for quite a while. At first, we found the problem with the gullies themselves as a couple of them were blocked.

“These have since been cleared but the problem of water not flowing away continued, and more blockages in the pipes were found.

“This has since been cleared and has helped the problem slightly but, during this work a further blockage in the pipes was found.

“So, there is this ongoing process short term and that is where we are now.”

Mr Steptoe adds he is concerned for the long-term future and fears the drainage system is not good enough to cope with the change of weather pattern He said: “We do eventually need to look long term to see what needs to be done.

“It is an ongoing problem. The road surface itself is also not right. It is not allowing water to flow to the gullies.

“One of the other issues we need to take in consideration is the drainage system in our village are are quite old.

“So, with change of weather patterns, where we get more sudden down pours, it is questionable whether the drainage systems can cope with those sudden downpours.

“It is a concern I have as to what do we need to do with those systems as they are old.

“But I will not rest until the issue is resolved.”