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05
Jun 2024
Knaresborough councillors stand by 'blocked gullies' claim
Two Knaresborough councillors have hit back at claims they were “irresponsible” to blame the state of the town’s drains for last month’s floods.
More than 50 homes were affected by flash floods on May 6 that also left roads under water.
Councillors Matt Walker and Hannah Gostlow, who represent Knaresborough West and Knaresborough East respectively on North Yorkshire Council, afterwards questioned whether the state of gullies had contributed to the problem.
But Cllr Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive member for highways on the council, robustly denied this at a council meeting two weeks later.
Cllr Duncan said the flooding was due to a “freak localised weather event” rather than poorly maintained gullies and said claims to the contrary by the Liberal Democrat councillors in Knaresborough were “incorrect and irresponsible”.
He said “no drainage system could possibly have coped” with 32 millimetres of rainfall within an hour, adding:
I must challenge head-on claims made on social media and in the press by local Lib Dem councillors that adequate gully maintenance and cost-saving measures are to blame.
Our team have seen no evidence to support this claim.
Cllr Keane Duncan
Responding to a question from Cllr Gostlow, Cllr Duncan said the council had cleaned 2,664 gullies in Knaresborough over the last three years and there had been “significant improvement in our gully cleaning regime across the county”.
Cllr Gostlow told the Stray Ferret she and Cllr Walker had raised concerns shared by many people in Knaresborough about the town’s drainage system. She said they had done so many times in recent years and hadn’t felt their comments had been adequately listened to.
She added:
Anyone who is familiar with Knaresborough will tell you that even after the efforts over the last few of weeks, there are many, many gullies still blocked.
Cllrs Gostlow and Walker
Cllr Walker added:
Unfortunately, the rainfall was a sign of what’s to come with climate change, and the state of our gullies are indicative of the state of our highways.
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