This is a talking point published in the Hereford Times on October 10.

Jesse Norman

I looked at Leon, Leon looked at Katie and Milly, they all looked at me, and we peered once again into the drain. The water was near the top, and it wasn’t moving. Not good.

This is not because we all belong to an obscure group of hobbyist drain inspectors. No: Katie Fowler and Milly Boylan are local councillors, and Leon Davies is one half of a legendary Ross partnership with his wife Lorraine, who owns the hairdressers at the bottom of Brookend Street. I was just there to try to give everything a bit of extra va-va-voom.

In the old days, Brookend Street used to flood now and then, perhaps once a year, from river water coming up from the Rudhall Brook.

No one was happy about it, but the local businesses understood the problem and generally had a bit of time to prepare.

This year in particular there have been a series of sudden downpours which have caused flash flooding of rain water, and that water is not draining away.

After the torrential downpour in May, I had helped to convene a flood recovery group bringing Welsh Water, Balfour Beatty, Herefordshire Councillors and Ross Town Councillors together.

It had taken many months, much longer than anyone wanted, but the pavements and road surface had been reinstated on Broad Street. They look much better, and let’s hope they stand the test of time.

But Brookend Street was a different matter. Local businesses had been assured that the drains had been cleared of silt.

But here we were again, looking at drains outside Aldi that were not doing their job, part of the pavement riding up under the water pressure, and wondering how to get them fixed.

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And in the meantime, everyone was concerned that there was more rain expected at the weekend and no fresh sandbags (the hessian ones, not the plastic, which everyone was concerned that there was more rain expected at the weekend and no fresh sandbags (the hessian ones, not the plastic, which degrade very quickly).

But I am hopeful there is good news on the horizon. A follow-up meeting last week brought all the key officers on site, identified a potential drain connection problem (no surprises there) and has scheduled a whole raft of further work to figure out what has gone wrong here and how to fix it.

And as for the rain? Well, after our drain-peering session we put out an all points bulletin, and Welsh Water brilliantly obliged with sandbags the following day, a Saturday afternoon, just in time. Thankyou!