I would like to thank everyone who reported blocked drains and culverts across the Dorking Hills following the article in the Winter 2015 Focus. All those reported to us have been reported to the County Council.

As a result of the information provided to the County Council and further investigation, it has been revealed that 65 roads in Mole Valley were completely missing from the County Council’s drainage asset register and that a further 17 roads were partially omitted.This means that the drains in these roads were never cleared as part of the County Council’s cyclical drainage clearance programme.

As well as these drains not appearing on the asset register and thus cleared regularly, there has been a lack of street cleaning and leaf clearance by Mole Valley District Council which has resulted in an increasing number of drains becoming blocked. This lack of appropriate street cleaning has been taken up with the District Council who have been asked to address the issue.

This exercise in identifying blocked drains and gullies across the area has revealed a significant failure by both the County and District Councils to look after our area and has resulted in localised flooding. This is now being addressed, but it should not have taken a significant number of residents complaints to identify the widespread failure that has occurred in maintaining our drains and culverts and ensuring that localised flooding does not occur.