Staple Tye councillors Su Lawton and Lorna Spenceley were among the large numbers of local residents and representatives at the Civic Centre for the 'challenge' event about the summer flooding in several estates, including some parts of Staple Tye.

Su is a member of the scrutiny committee which is investigating the flooding, and Lorna attended to represent local residents.

Officers from Harlow Council, Essex County Council, Thames Water and Essex Fire & Rescue were in attendance to make presentations and answer questions from councillors and members of the public.

Joe McGill from Harlow Council explained that which agencies were responsible for which types of drain; 97 per cent of Harlow's highways are 'adopted' and the responsibility falls on Essex County Council, with only 3 per cent of roads 'unadopted' for which Harlow Council is responsible. Thames Water is responsible for the main drains.

At the time of the June 2006 floods, 123 calls were received, including 24 for roofs, 40 for drains, 17 fire brigade calls, 37 for sandbags and 5 for sewage. For the July floods, there were 136 calls, including 21 for drains, 67 for the fire brigade, 2 for manholes, 5 for the police and 40 for sandbags.

Since the floods, the council has reviewed its risk register, carried out some underground CCTV surveying, met with the Fire & Rescue Service and Essex County Council and Thames Water, and agreed with Essex and Thames to review the public's responses to the questionnaire which was issued some weeks ago.

Further action will include surveying all Harlow Council land drainage ditches, reviewing the council budget, hosting four open days for advice on flooding, providing information for residents on alternatives to sandbags, considering satellite storage sites for sandbag alternatives, and carrying out a risk assessment of off-street parking (including the effect of dropped kerbs on where water runs). Su asked about the council's provision of sandbags, and the emergency response arrangements of Essex County Council.

Members of the public who spoke or asked questions included residents from Barleycroft, Berecroft, Sakins Croft and Commonside Road.

Many residents and councillors expressed disbelief at the county council's claims that its gulleys are cleaned twice a year - one resident circulated a photograph of a drain with flowers growing out of it that clearly had not been touched for years! Lorna suggested that Essex County Council and Thames Water should publish their maintenance schedules so that residents could see for themselves whether their area was being cleaned as claimed. She also drew attention to the effects of repeated flooding on Paringdon School.

Residents also complained that the streets had not been cleaned after the flooding, and that they had had to clean sewage from the roads themselves. There were also complaints about failures by Thames Water to deal with reports of problems, and a discussion about the poor levels of compensation offered by Thames. One resident said that her insurance excess had risen by 500 per cent to £5,000.

The next meeting of the scrutiny committee to consider the flooding will be on Tuesday 21 November at 19:30 in the Civic Centre. Again, it is a public meeting and all are welcome to attend.