A HIGHWAYS boss has promised Canvey residents more will be done to clear drains and gullies.

Paul Bird, director for commissioning transport and infrastructure at Essex Highways, assured a packed public meeting there would be no more “short-term fixes” for the island’s drainage system.

In the frank exchange, he said it was “luck rather than judgment”

that flooding hasn’t caused more problems for the island.

The meeting was held to gather evidence to hand over to the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport.

More than 50 residents sat in the public gallery as councillors put Essex Highways and Essex County Council in the hot seat.

The authority insisted even with a perfect drainage system, the amount of rain that fell on July 20 would still have resulted in flooding.

But Mr Bird admitted they need to do more.

He said: “Whatever has gone on in the past is not good enough for the residents.

“Flooding has not had the same attention as dealing with roads, footpaths and preparing for winter.

I think it has been luck rather than judgment. From now on we have to make sure we are not taking that position.

“We need to haveamore responsive system. To go and investigate afterwards, as mud and debris get washed down drains. We have to look at a different maintenance regime.”

Up to 700 of Canvey’s 6,000 gullies are in need of repair and County Hall is planning to replace up to 60 gullies on the seafront.

Mr Bird said: “Heavy rainfall in matter of hours or a day would naturally recede. That isn’t happening now. Somewhere along the whole system we think there might be some deep-seated problem we have to find.

“We have to make sure. No short term fixes anymore. We will deal with that with better maintenance.

“We can’t prioritise everything, but we want to make the island more resilient over the winter.”

! ACTION could be taken against developers who blocked drains on Canvey, according to a council director.

Andrew Cook, director of environment and economy at Essex County Council, told the scrutiny meeting flooding agencies were looking into taking enforcement action against “unscrupulous developers who circumnavigated regulations”.

Drains may have been blocked by developers and others have been changed in size.

Dave Blackwell, chair of the flooding scrutiny committee, said: “I don’t see how this can happen.

Most of the houses were built in the Sixties and Seventies. How can they start taking action now.

The priority now is to fix the drains.”

RESIDENTS who attended the meeting, including those flooded out in July, applauded Mr Bird Martin Tucker, councillor for Canvey North ward, said: “Mr Bird you’ve given the people here a comfort in a way. You have to be honest with us. Something being done was all we wanted.”

Barbara Johnson, 55, of Holbek Road, was flooded out of her home in July. She said: “I was heartened by his words. He took the wind out of everyone’s sails with his openness and honesty. This is what people needed to hear – that we have been neglected as a community and the work done on the drainage on the Island has not been up to scratch for years.

“We all knew that, and no one was listening. His promises, made very publicly, with regard to getting to the bottom of the problems and hopefully sourcing Government funding for the near future while we have the momentum to help us in the long-term regeneration of the infrastructure, were very encouraging.”

THE Environment Agency and Anglian Water will be quizzed by the committee at the next meeting.

Chair of the flooding committee Dave Blackwell said: “The meeting with highways went really well.

Paul Bird made a commitment people were happy with. It is great the agencies are working together and saying it doesn’t matter whose drain it is, we will fix them.

“Residents are still getting back to me. We have a new list of 20 roads to look at and the agencies are responding very quickly.

“The big issue we had was they were not working together, they were separate.

Now they are working together, cross-referencing and following things up.”

The next meeting will take place at 7.30pm at Castle Point Council offices in Kiln Road, Thundersley, on Monday, November 3.