Council to take legal action over flooding in road

Study shows surface water flows from fields

Enforcement action is being taken by the council in an effort to prevent a village road from becoming heavily flooded again.

Kent County Council has come under fire after Nash Road in Wingham was left submerged following heavy rainfall – despite the authority closing it for three months over the summer to carry out drainage works.

But council bosses say the floods are being caused by water flowing onto the road from neighbouring land – sparking enforcement action to tackle the problem.

Engineers had installed a special drain to help reduce the surface water flooding onto the highway, with a section of pipe with holes in it discharging the water into a shingle bed

But builder Richard Barwick, from Preston, branded it a waste of time and money after the road again flooded heavily during the first winter rain.

He said: “I drive that road almost every day to work and there’s been a problem for years.

“While the work has made some difference, there’s still a section of about 150 to 200 yards which can get almost impassable, with the water more than a foot deep.

“I appreciate that it’s a minor road but it gets used quite a lot by people taking a short cut to the Ash Road to avoid the junction at the bottom of Preston Hill.

“I suppose there is only so much they can do, but it seems to me they haven’t put enough thought into it and what is happening to cause the flooding.”

KCC highways spokesman Thom Morris said the work was carried out in three phases over the summer months.

“The phase in question involved the installation of a rubble drain to help reduce the surface water flooding on the highway,” he explained.

“We have since carried out further investigations and established that there is a considerable amount of water flowing from adjacent land which exceeds the design capacity of the highway drainage system.

“We are currently carrying out enforcement action under the Highways Act 1980 to reduce the surface water flowing onto the carriageway from the adjacent land.”

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Nash Road near Wingham which floods in heavy rain