FREQUENT flooding problems in St Albans are the fault of a helpless county council, an aggrieved local resident has claimed. Jack Hill, of Riverside Close in St Albans, has been complaining to Herts Highways for over a year and a half about the lake t

FREQUENT flooding problems in St Albans are the fault of a "helpless" county council, an aggrieved local resident has claimed.

Jack Hill, of Riverside Close in St Albans, has been complaining to Herts Highways for over a year and a half about the "lake" that forms near the entrance to the Abbey Flyer train station on the corner of Prospect Road and Holywell Hill every time it rains.

Jack, who contacted Herts Highways following last weekend's heavy rainfall, said that he was "baffled" by the council's response: "I have an email from Cllr Stuart Pile on behalf of Herts Highways which tells me that they have run out of ideas to solve the problem. For some reason they prefer to do nothing but wring their hands."

He added: "Every drain system is tested before it is taken over so the implication is that over the years the connecting pipes have become blocked. My immediate reaction would be to call in a drainage service with unblocking expertise, cameras and drilling heads."

A Herts Highways spokesperson said that they were aware of the problem and added: "We appreciate local concerns about the road flooding and hope to resolve the problem within this financial year when the kerb and drain are altered as part of changes to the bus stop."

*blob A frustrated motorist has called on Herts Highways to explain how it is going to tackle the problem of flooding at a busy St Albans junction.

The north east corner of the Ancient Briton junction in St Albans - which links Beech Road to Harpenden Road - also flooded last week and it took Harpenden resident Peter Mannell 45 minutes to get from his home in Aldwickbury Crescent to St Albans city centre on Friday morning (13).

He pointed out that his daughter was late for college as a result and said he was fed up with having to tackle flooded St Albans roads whenever it rained.

The Herts Highways spokesperson said that the drains were cleaned at the Ancient Briton junction a year ago to try and alleviate the problem: "After nearly a year without any flooding reports, we think the flooding in recent weeks has been caused by the drains becoming blocked again. We appreciate the inconvenience this causes and are working to resolve this.