Jesse Norman: ‘serious questions remain’ over town’s flooding problem

A Herefordshire town centre now needs “long-term solutions” to its drainage problems following widespread damage caused by stormwater at the weekend, its MP has said.

Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman praised staff from Herefordshire Council and their contractor Balfour Beatty, and from Welsh Water, to their quick response to the problem, centred on Ross-on-Wye’s Broad Street and Brookend Street.

“But there are still serious questions about what exactly caused the flooding, and how this damage can be prevented from recurring,” Mr Norman said.

“Brookend Street was flooded a few years ago, but this looks far worse, and the damage to Broad Street has been horrendous.”

With over £200 million of government funding recently secured to improve the county’s transport infrastructure, “the funding should be in place to support a long-term solution for Ross, and it is vital that we have one”, the MP said.

And he urged the council and its contractor “to prevent any possibility of further risk, which might occur with patched-up repairs to the road surface and pavements, which have already proved suspect in places and could potentially give way again”.

Mr Norman, himself until recently a transport minister, told BBC Hereford & Worcester radio earlier today (May 14) that he would now “go into bat with ministers in Westminster for emergency flood support, so the rest of the county isn’t bearing the burden for one piece of flash flooding”.