WEST Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger is seeking a further meeting with Environment Agency officials to discuss the area’s recent flooding problems - while warning there was no obvious short-term solution for many of them.

Dozens of homes and business were affected when torrential rain saw streets turned into torrents last week.

Among the worst-hit locations were Withycombe and Carhampton, while in Minehead The Parks stream flooded properties in Park Street, Wellington Square, The Parade, and The Avenue.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the fact there were few problems in Porlock, where flooding has been a significant issue in the past, illustrated how localised the heaviest of the rain had been.

He said: “This is precisely in line with what climatologists have been forecasting for the last 30 years, but it does illustrate the complexity of the problem facing us.

Highways teams estimate it could take months to clear up sites such as this near Dulverton after last week's storms.
Highways teams estimate it could take months to clear up sites such as this in Exebridge, near Dulverton, after last week's storms. (Dulverton Town Council)

“Minehead has a particular vulnerability in that it is surrounded on three sides by hills, giving rise to very rapid and damaging run-off in storms such as the one we saw earlier.

“Most of the water from the west of the town has to pass through a Victorian culvert running beneath The Parade and The Avenue and when that is no longer able to accommodate the flow, the water finds its way onto the streets.

“It would be a massively costly exercise to increase the capacity of the culvert or indeed to create a new relief drain to speed the flow of water down to the sea.

“In the past it has been suggested that a retention basin could be built somewhere upstream of the town to mitigate flows, but given the amount of housing that now occupies that area the choices are very limited indeed.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said any flood alleviation scheme for Minehead would have to show a clear financial benefit. 

He said: “Given that constraint, we simply could not fling millions of pounds at a cure for something which is currently only a problem every few decades.

“Athough, were serious flooding to become a more common occurrence then clearly we should need to consider some kind of comprehensive prevention scheme.”