Extensive work to take place to resolve Water Lane flooding issues

Hertfordshire County Council has been looking for a "long-term" fix to stop flooding in Water Lane, Watford, with the street suffering from flash flooding on many occasions.

According to a county councillor, work will be carried out over two weeks from August 31 to September 18 as part of a major project to help resolve the issue.

The purpose of the work is to ensure water can be redirected better from the road into a nearby river.

As part of the work, a tree will be removed on the south side of the riverbank by the Tesco store to enable machinery access to the riverbed.

A car trapped in Water Lane Credit: Rory Robinson

Debris and vegetation from the side will then be cleared, which will then allow the county council to assess and undertake the rerouting of the existing pump flow.

Temporary traffic lights will be in place at Water Lane while the work is in place between 9.30am and 3pm each day.

Bushey North county councillor Laurence Brass, left, and Central Watford councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst, right,

Central Watford councillor Stephen-Giles was among councillors pushing for a remedy to the floods.

Previously the Bushey Liberal Democrats issued a statement that "a full review of the site and a far more resilient solution" was needed.

A car trapped in Water Lane Credit: Rory Robinson

Near the end of January, heavy rainfall caused Water Lane to be shut for ten days causing travel disruption to the area.

Talking about the solution, Cllr Giles-Medhurst and Cllr Brass said: "The County Council and Watford Borough, who are undertaking the clearance work, had to get the works agreed by the Environment Agency but hopefully once finished this will, we can hope, reduce flooding and road closures here.

“We all suffered from the 10 day closure at the start of the year and we are pleased that the county council acted on our demands for action to resolve the ongoing issues here."