The issue of delayed responses to flood victims in South Cheshire Villages and Hamlets was raised at today’s meeting of Cheshire East’s Cabinet.
Cllr Janet Clowes raised the matter on behalf of residents in her own Wybunbury Ward but also on behalf of residents in Nantwich South (Cllrs Peter Groves and Andrew Martin) and Audlem (Cllr Rachel Bailey).
It is now 4 and 6 weeks since the heavy rainfall that deluged the borough of Cheshire East at the end of October and early November. Cheshire East was inundated with requests for help at that time and quite rightly had to prioritise how they tackled the myriad issues they were presented with - The key factors were based on “risk to life and property”
Cllr Clowes explained to Cabinet Members;
“Clearly at the start of the crisis, residents recognised that others were likely to be in greater need. However even in our rural villages and hamlets, houses and businesses were inundated with flood waters at Blakenhall and Wrinehill Road, hamlets on Mill Lane were (and remains) cut off as the Lane disappeared under 2 - 3 feet of water, Dingle Lane in Bridgemere remains closed to all traffic, residents from Batherton are still in temporary accommodation as their homes dry out and Cllr Bailey has reported that residents in hamlets outside Audlem are still having to use the travelling toilet in their caravan as their septic tanks are flooded and foul sewage has flooded their gardens.”
”Residents have been remarkably stoic but to still be waiting after six weeks to simply have their enquiries responded to is totally unacceptable”
”Flood Engineering Teams finally attended Batherton last Friday after regular requests from Cllrs Groves and Martin and I am relieved to say that the team contacted residents at Blakenhall yesterday (Monday) - but many residents are still waiting.”
”I have therefore requested that Cabinet and Officers Conduct a thorough enquiry about how the Council managed responses to this major flood incident, in the expectation that the learning will be robustly applied should this happen again. As the fields across Cheshire East remain super-saturated, this eventuality is unfortunately, highly likely sooner rather than later.”
