A CATSHILL couple hit out at Bromsgrove District Council after their garden flooded weeks after flood prevention work was completed.

Jill and Bob Whitney, of Ash Drive, were horrified when rubbish from the brook at the end of their garden started to spill over after a few days of heavy rainfall, last week.

Bob, 64, was diagnosed with cancer at the end of last year and his daughter, Linda Farr, said the council work had caused him nothing but concern and upset.

"We arrived back from the doctors earlier in the year and the bulldozers had moved in, it really upset dad," said Linda, of Lingfield Walk.

Work began in spring to introduce a number of flood prevention schemes to the Catshill area including six balancing ponds and weirs.

Residents have endured the misery of flooding for more than 25 years and council proposals received a welcome response.

The couple have lived in Ash Drive for 37 years and Bob regularly dredged the brook of rubbish to keep water levels low, however now he has become too ill to do so.

Bromsgrove District Council's head of technical services, John Moody, said most engineering work had now been completed.

"It is hard to comment on individual cases but we are quite pleased with the way the defences held up in these conditions.

"And while it is pleasant to have a brook at the end of your garden the maintenance of it is, by law, the responsibility of the home owners."

The couple are also unhappy with the council-erected fence separating the garden from the brook.

Mr Moody said: "If the owners have got a problem with this they need to contact the council."