Andy Munns
The local community came together to support their neighbours after properties on Ashley Road flooded.
Residents and local councillors came together as flood water in the area of Ashley Road in Salisbury rose, endangering buildings and flooding some homes in the wake of storm Henk.
Local councillors Sven Hocking, Paul Sample, and Sam Charleston joined residents who banded together to gather sandbags and sand to fill them and try to prevent properties from flooding.
The river Avon in the area burst its banks on Saturday, with water spilling over into the road and properties.
Salisbury City Council opened its depot to allow sandbags to be collected with sand coming from a building site to fill them. Residents supported by Spire Removals ferried the sandbags and closed the roads to stop car movement on the road and causing waves.
Cllr Sam Charleston provided an update on Sunday evening, “I have just been down Ashley Road for the last time today, and took a picture – a stark contrast from yesterday, and hopefully a good sign of progress in the right direction.
“People are rightly concerned and upset about the flooding. We will work with colleagues and officers of both councils to try and get a better picture in the short term of what happened, and have asked the Environment Agency to give a report to Salisbury City Council about it and will let everyone know when this is taking place. This will be a public meeting, and we will welcome as many of you to attend as possible.
“We will also be speaking with other services about the response this weekend and what could have been done better.
“Today, Victoria and I have been speaking with the Environment Agency to understand the risk of further flooding. I also spoke with John Glen about some possible next steps as well.
“All being well, the water level should continue to go down, and the upcoming dry weather should allow the area to dry out.”
Some residents took to social media to complain about parking tickets issued after the flooding. The leader of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Richard Clewer, has suspended parking enforcement in the area affected by the flooding, and those with parking tickets should be able to have them cancelled with no problems.
Flooding also caused issues in other parts of the city, closing Milford Mill Road and Southampton Road, which had large areas of standing water near Churchill Gardens.
Britford Village, amongst others, also suffered from flooding after very high levels of rainfall following two storms added to already fairly high river levels.
Much of Salisbury’s water meadows are currently underwater.
Feature Image: Paul Sample (Facebook)
