Manea councillor blames flooding on weed maintenance

Councillor Charlie Marks said flooding in Manea had been caused by a lack of weed maintenance

A parish councillor has said poor maintenance from Cambridgeshire County Council has caused persistent flooding.

Parish councillor for the Manea ward, Charlie Marks, said unmaintained weeds were blocking gullies on Station Road, preventing rain water drainage.

He described it as a "money saving idea" but the council said it stopped chemically treating weeds in a commitment to improve the environment.

The authority said it was reviewing that decision for a future budget.

Mr Marks said: "I think this will be a continuing issue until such time that it's resolved by Cambridgeshire County Council to get all these drains and gullies done."

Councillor Alex Beckett, chair of the highways and transport committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "We made this change as we want to reduce the use of chemical treatments and only remove weeds when they become a nuisance or safety hazard.

"If weeds do present a nuisance or a safety hazard they will be removed," he added.

The council said it had invested £300,000 this year to create more drainage on rural roads and had not received any reports of flooding along Station Road, Manea, since September 2021.