A BUSINESS owner in Bronygarth fears more properties may suffer damage from flooding if Shropshire Council fails to take action after recent issues.

Simon Pierpoint, of Brookside Leisure Park, raised his concerns for people in the area after the recent severe weather caused by Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis damaged properties.

Water which ran down the road beside Simon’s home and the leisure park flooded parts of his properties, prompting him to call on the council for more help in preventing these incidents.

He had to protect his home with sandbags to stop rain water entering the property.

“The first storm started the trouble really and we had the squash courts at the leisure park affected by them,” he said.

“In the morning, we got a call to say water was coming in through the doors of the squash courts – it was like Niagara Falls coming down the lane beside the leisure park. I’d never seen that before.

“The level of the water rose and rose, and it flooded the whole area of the courts eventually by about two foot, right through the building.

“It’s caused a lot of damage. We had to put sandbags down to protect the house.”

Simon believes the impact would have been lessened if the council had regularly cleared gullies and ditches near the road.

He added: “We presumed it was just nature doing its worse, but then Storm Dennis came along. The rainfall wasn’t as much as the previous storm, and no more than what we’d have expected with it being such a stormy winter.

“But the water came over the house from the road and started to flood us again. So we managed to pump some out and do various things to stop it from doing more damage.

“The biggest thing we realised was that the ditches beside the roads near the house have not been cleaned out in the last three years.

“All the gullies are blocked as well and have not been looked at by the council. The way the roads are tarmacked means everything just comes down the hill from Offa’s Dyke like a huge torrent.”

“We did all we could to save the house and the courts really.”

Simon continued: “The council need to act upon what they’re doing and not doing.

“We haven’t had too much frost here this year, but they’ve not filled up our salt bins, and we haven’t seen the gritter up here for a couple of years.

“If the authorities aren’t doing the work, it means we have to try as local people to do things ourselves.”

Shropshire Council has been approached for comment.