The parish council chairman of flood-hit Potterne has revealed that Wiltshire Council told him two years ago that much-needed drainage work in the village was a “top five priority”. He has now called for whomever at the authority was responsible for the delay to be fired.

Cllr Peter Balls told a meeting of the parish council that the urgent issue of flood risk in the village was reported to Wiltshire Council in September 2019.

He said he had emails from the then Leader of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Philip Whitehead, that drainage work on gullies in Potterne was “one of the top five priorities in the county”.

But despite Wiltshire Council marking the issue as urgent, all of the flood prevention work that is needed has not been done and a week ago the village was swamped again after a downpour, the fourth flooding in Potterne in three months.

Following uproar in the village after the latest flooding, the parish council meeting was attended not only by Cllr Tamara Reay, who represents Potterne on Wiltshire Council, but also by Cllr Nic Puntis, who chairs the county authority’s Operational Flood Working Group North. And they heard Cllr Balls blast their council.

“It’s outrageous,” said Cllr Balls, “because what we are told will be done by the leadership of the council and what happens is completely different. I’m fed up. Frankly, someone needs to be sacked.”

He added: “There is no question that Wiltshire Council does not know about this problem, we’ve got the emails. They say they are going to do this and they are going to do that, but nothing happens. I’ve got the letters from Wiltshire Council saying this is a top priority. No-one at Wiltshire Council seems to know who is responsible, it’s a systematic failure which is profound.”

Since it was first alerted to the flood risk in Potterne, Wiltshire Council staff have done some work to try mitigate the problem; recently drains were suctioned but gullies built to avoid flooding have not been cleared.

Cllr Balls said: “We have mails from Wiltshire Council saying the work is finished as far as we are concerned and we said we don’t think it is finished. And then when the rain came we were proved right.”

Cllr Puntis assured the meeting that Wiltshire Council would now take the action necessary to avoid more flooding of the village.

“I’ll put my neck on the line. I won’t drop this until we have some way forward on this,” he said.

Cllr Dr Mark McCelland, Cabinet Member for flooding said, “We suggest the parish council and landowners attend the operational flood working group where they will be able to work with all agencies to help reduce the flood risk in this area. Notwithstanding the flood working group the area remains on our list for work to be carried out.”

CORRECTION: Last week we reported that Porch House in Potterne was flooded by the deluge. This was incorrect, it was Porch Cottage.