Felpham residents seek answers after '˜Monsoon Monday'

Mr Gibb visited the Felpham Beach Estate to find out more about the causes of the flooding which affected the area.

He met the owners of homes in and around Minton Road and Davenport Road which were inundated with water on ‘Monsoon Monday’ on June 11.

Jane Smeaton’s two properties in Minton Road were flooded, Chris Norris of Minton Road was flooded for the second time in three years and John Hanslip, of Wedgwood Road, had a small amount of flooding in his house.

Beth McGee-Russell, the honorary secretary of the Felpham Beach Homeowners’ Association, said it was believed a flap installed on the outflow pipe for the area about two years ago had worsened the impact of the flooding.

“Residents believe the jamming of this flap in the open position – they had to whack it with a sledgehammer to get it to move and close – exacerbated the flooding.

“With the flap open at high tide, which was in the early morning on June 11, sea water came in.

“But this flooding was not just tidal, as there were fairly constant levels of flooding for around 36 hours,” she said.

Residents also suspected the large drainage pipe which runs between Wedgwood Road and Bereweeke Road to the sea was clogged.

That could explain why the surface water was unable to drain at low tide as it had in the past.