Animal rescue centre's £20k appeal after flooding

The goat enclosure has been the worst affected by flooding and has left the animals "distressed", Trindledown Farm said

An animal rescue centre has set up a crowdfunding appeal to help pay for £20,000-worth of damage caused by flooding.

Berkshire Animal Welfare Trust's Trindledown Farm in Hungerford specialises in the care of elderly animals and the upheaval has been “quite hard on them”, fundraising manager, Molly Hall, said.

The charity said it wanted the local authority to help with “an effective flood prevention plan and an effective drainage system”.

West Berkshire Council said it would “happily engage” with the farm to help protect the property from future flooding.

"Half of our farm is flooded", staff have explained

Ms Hall said: "Half of our farm is flooded so we have had to move quite a lot of our animals to the higher fields."

As the animals can no longer feed on grass, due to the waterlogging, she explained they had been moved on to hard feed which was costing the centre an extra £325 per week.

Centre manager, Tracy Waldron, said: “We’ve noticed fencing already starting to fall under the water pressure and with the flooding not expected to leave for several months, we estimate that all the affected areas, including some of our outdoor animal shelters, will have rotted away before the water recedes.”

She added: “We are a smaller charity compared to other rescues, so this is a huge financial hit.”

Fundraising manager Molly Hall said the centre needed "an effective flood prevention plan and an effective drainage system"

Ms Hall said: “We’ve been on this site almost 25 years and this happens every three to four years like clockwork.

“Ideally we just want [the authorities] to step in and give us a hand really because it’s ridiculous this happens every few years.”

West Berkshire Council said the “responsibility for the maintenance of the adjacent ditches lies with the farm and not the council.”

It added: “The council will happily engage with the farm to discuss measures they should be taking to protect their property from flooding.”