Statement by TUV Bannside councillor Timothy Gaston:
“Following the recent flooding incidents in Ballymena I have received a large number of complaints about Floodline, a service provided by the Environment Agency and based in Great Britain.
“While I am a strong Unionist I also believe that on many occasions local people are best placed to provide advice in situations such as those faced by people in the Ballymena area in recent days. Residents couldn’t get updates and were unable to make direct contact with local agencies through the current service.
“While I accept that it would be neither practical nor cost effective to run a round the clock service dedicated to flooding in Northern Ireland I believe that options need to be explored to ensure that people who find themselves in distressing situations where their homes can be under threat can receive a better and more informative service.
“I have also been pressing the relevant agencies about the issues which led to the flooding.
“I took the opportunity at the inter agency meeting (where all agencies were represented) on 19th June to voice my concerns to the relevant agencies face to face and challenged them all to act pro-actively now to stop this happening again.
“In the case of Road Service, I challenged them on the frequency of their road gully cleaning operations. I questioned if it is sufficient given the amount of dirt removed from the blocked gullies on Queens Street during the flooding on Tuesday night. Working alongside Jim Allister I intend to keep raising this issue until it’s resolved once and for all.”