ILMINSTER NEWS: Flooding – county councillor is furious over lack of response from highways chiefs

THE Ilminster county council representative apologised to people on Tuesday (August 1, 2017) for “failing them” over the recent flooding nightmare to have hit the town.

Cllr Linda Vijeh (pictured above), who represents Ilminster at Somerset County Council, said offering an apology was “too mild” in contrast to what people and businesses had experienced with the latest flooding chaos back on the afternoon of Sunday, July 23, 2017.

She told people ahead of Ilminster Town Council’s planning, highways and transport committee meeting that she had repeatedly tried to get someone from the highways authority at the county council and the Environment Agency to attend and listen to their concerns.

But she said: “I have failed.”

Cllr Vijeh later said she was furious that she had been “ignored” by the highways department despite asking them constantly for answers about what could be done.

“I am responsible,” she said. “I’m not the person who can solve the problems, but it’s me who people can come to as their county council representative.

“I would offer my apologies, but that’s too mild for what people have experienced.”

Cllr Vijeh added: “I have been flooded in the past, but nothing like what people have experienced in recent years here in Ilminster.”

And she said that the people who could make a difference and get things done should be “brought to justice” over their failure to so far do anything.

Cllr Vijeh thanked Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh, who represents Ilminster at Westminster, for using his power to make some inroads at County Hall.

Mr Fysh, who was in attendance at the Ilminster meeting and listened intently to what people had to say, gave Cllr Vijeh a copy of an email he had received from the county council’s highways spokesman Cllr John Woodman.

Cllr Woodman said in his email that the highways department was “working hard to address flooding issues for the long and short term.”

He added that a “community drop-in event” would be held in Ilminster in the future to allow highways officers to speak with local residents and councillors about the flooding.

Cllr Woodman said that they would be wanting to get local photographs and information relating to flooding problems in Ilminster.

“The more information we have the better,” he said. “We will keep the community involved.”

But people at the meeting hardly got excited over the county council’s response with the claim they had “heard it all before” coming out loud.

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