We still suffer with floods

8:22am Sunday 20th July 2008

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LINDA Brown will never forget the day her home was greeted by a familiar but unwelcome guest last summer.

But like so many other people in Haydon Wick there was little she could do when the floodwater came lapping at her door.

And with the first anniversary of the July 20 floods just a day away Linda, like so many others, still hasn't moved back into her house.

She admits she faces an uncertain future, estimating that her home floods on average every couple of months.

"I remember the floods and particularly July very well - how could I forget?" said the 45-year-old.

"My partner and I were working in Oxford when our lodger rang to tell us that water was coming down the drive.

"Then by midday he rang again to say that water was in the house.

"He saved all the books and other personal items on the bottom shelves."

On arriving back into Swindon Linda thinks she was one of the last people to get under Acorn Bridges on the A420 before it flooded.

"It still took us three and a half hours to get home," she said.

"We lost our entire ground floor and our home is over half a mile from the Haydon Wick brook.

"Our flood problem is entirely due to the storm drains and sewer system being unable to cope with any amount of water.

"Thames Water has yet to release the results of a comprehensive survey promised last year or start any sewer capacity improvements.

"The council has yet to improve the run-off of surface water from the local playing fields, the road gullies, storm water drains or the road camber that sends water streaming down my drive from the other end of the street.

"The drain opposite my drive will still only take water when my garden is eight inches under water.

"The Environment Agency has only just begun work on the Haydon Wick brook, which is part of their annual maintenance, not as a result of last year's floods."

And to compound her problems, Linda says insurance premiums have rocketed since the floods of last year.

"Our buildings insurance premium has just gone up to £1,500 and our contents insurance has raised our backdated to last year's policy," she added.

"This effectively means that we are now uninsured in the event of a future flood, which here in the centre of old Haydon Wick is likely rather than a one in a hundred event.

"Our sewers last flooded on March 16 and then two months ago.

"Prior to that it was January this year. We still suffer flooding on average every two months."