Action call on submerged streets

Highways officers investigating flooding in Melbourn

A RESIDENT is calling for action on a village’s “woeful” drainage system which leaves roads submerged after heavy rain.

Highways officers will head to Melbourn to try and solve the problem, which has seen streets in the village completely flooded in recent weeks following rain. Nigel Smith, a Melbourn resident, took this picture (left) last weekend in Greenbanks, near his home.

He said: “The drain system in Melbourn village is woeful. Every year we get flooding after heavy rain - even just one hour - and the council and highways think the only problem is cleaning the leaves out.

Mr Smith added that he believes the problems stem from over-development of the Melbourn area.

“Planners allow lots of new development without improving the infrastructure like drains. Why do they not make it a condition for the industrial and residential developers to pay up front for improving the services that they feed into,” he said.

Mick Oakman, Cambridgeshire County Council’s area maintenance manager, said: “We’re aware of the problem in Melbourn and will be going down in the next couple of weeks to flush out the drains and see if there is a blockage which is causing the flooding. Once we’ve cleared the pipes we’ll be able to see whether there are any other problems that need to be resolved.

A spokesman for South Cambridgeshire District Council, which administers planning and development for the Melbourn area, said planning permission is only granted for new buildings subject to sufficient drainage infrastructure being in place.