Flood purse is stretched

Officers are concerned basic services will be cut back because of cash being diverted into repair work such as damaged roads.

The clean-up operation from the devastating Easter floods of 1998 cost a whopping £650,000 with estimates for a similar amount to deal with the latest bout and the floods of last month.

Worcestershire's total budget this year stood at £360m after a 3.2 per cent increase. The average increase was 5.6 per cent, with Kent receiving £70m.

"Worcestershire needs the same level of funding as areas such as Kent," said Councillor Tom Wells

"The last thing residents here need, beset as they are by all manner of domestic discomfort as a result of the floods, is to find the council can no longer offer them the support that they have come to expect because money for services has been spent fighting flooding."

County Council spokesman Kevin Galloway said 20 staff had been moved from their normal jobs to man phones during the flooding.

"These are trained staff that we are having to move from their departments to take calls from members of the public," he said.

"Something has to give. We have not got any spare cash to deal with the floods."

Although the County Council is entitled to apply for central government cash aid, its expenditure must hit a threshold of more than £789,000, though plans are underway to relax the rules on this.

Hair salon and council locked in tree dispute

A WAR of words has broken out between a Worcester hairdressing salon and the City Council over a new sapling.

Sam Roberts, whose salon is in Hylton Road, says she has planted a new tree to comply with council regulations, but it was washed away each time the flood struck.

Now officers are threatening to charge the salon to do the work they have been unable to complete.

They have been waiting nearly 18 months for the tree to be replaced, but have pledged to wait until the flooding problems have abated.

Ms Roberts said she had already suffered an estimated £3,000 losses as a result of the floods.

"It is just mind-boggling," she said. "I was getting worried about it at first but now I just laugh."

Ms Roberts spent around £40 on a tree to replace one which died at the front of the salon.

But it has failed to take root properly because of the recent spate of floods.

"I feel really let down by the council. I have written to them telling them what we need doing down Hylton Road. We need the road raising for one thing.

"I think the council should be looking at things like that instead of spending money on sending me letters about this tree."

Replaced

But Peter Yates, the city's chief planning officer, pointed out that Ms Roberts was first asked to replace the whitebeam after it died in spring last year.

"We wrote to them saying they needed to replace it and through the winter of 1999 to 2000 it should have been replaced but it wasn't," he explained.

"With the flooding, this is a difficult time, and we appreciate that. But as soon as the flooding has gone away, we would like it planted.

"This has been going for 18 months."

Business partner lashes out at 'idiotic' behaviour

A PARTNER in a Worcester business has accused residents in a cul-de-sac of being mean-spirited "idiots" during the floods.

David Wood, of Nationwide Doors and Windows on the Hylton Road trading estate, said that he tried to continue working despite extensive flooding on his main access road.

Last week he took to driving vans down Hardwicke Close to pass frames over a hedge so they could be installed.

"We parked one of our vans in front of our hedge one morning and when he went to move it someone had moved a cone in front of it," said Mr Wood.

"I'm fed up of hearing stories about people pulling together. The residents have already stopped the parking with all the cones and they phone the police whenever someone parks there.

"I've already had arguments with some of them about the hedge, but I own it.

"I'm sick to death of some of the attitudes of people during the floods. We're not here to cause problems. They are just behaving like idiots. "

Residents say parking on the road does cause major problems.

"Prior to the cones we had cars parking on both sides of the close and it was very difficult to get out," said Graham Clarke, a firefighter.

"Firms should make contingency plans for floods."

Mr Clarke said that as a firefighter he saw the need for proper access.

"A fire engine tried to get down here when there were lots of cars parked here and they couldn't reach," he said.

"People would park anywhere if there weren't cones. As for people moving cones - the cones are always there.

"We've phoned the police several times."