A DISGRUNTLED resident is appealing to Essex County Council to take urgent action to prevent further flooding on a busy road.

Ronald Hannan, 65 of Baden Powell Drive, Colchester, is urging the council to resolve a flooding problem on Maldon Road in the town.

The problematic route, which leads to Colchester Zoo, often floods as a result of several drains which he says have become blocked and overflow whenever there is a serious downpour of rain.

Mr Hannah has grown frustrated with the issue which has caused disruption to drivers and homeowners for the past 20 years and now wants the council to act.

He said: “I’m no drainage engineer but I can see the drains are all blocked up and have weeds growing out of them and they haven’t been cleaned in ages.

“If it rains heavily, there are big puddles and cars have to drive through them or go around them.

“But this is just part of a bigger problem in Colchester because the council doesn’t clear the drains so when it does rain it becomes a particularly bad thing and that’s when you get the flooding.

“This has been going on for years and they must have had plenty of money in the past to do something about it.”

Essex Highways, which says it has always striven to tackle the problem whenever it has been reported in the past, is now planning further cleaning procedures in a bid to minimise the possibility of future flooding.

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: “Maldon Road is one of our priority main roads so we regularly clean all the drains and have also responded to alerts raised by members of the public when problems have happened.

“As well as jetting and cleaning operations, we have provided flood boards at times and we have further cleaning now planned which does require traffic management to be planned ahead on this busy road.”

In addition to Maldon Road, several other streets within Colchester have also been prone to flooding in the past few years following heavy rain fall.

Winstree Road in Stanway has had ongoing flooding issues and affects Fiveways Primary School, causing problems for parents and staff.