Councillors Welcome Swift Vale Response To Flooding

3.45.02pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 20th Oct 2006

Abingdon Councillors have welcomed the twenty minute response time from the Vale's Direct Services Organisation (DSO) to a report of flooding at Chilton Close in Abingdon following last night's heavy rain fall across the area.

The Council was contacted at 5.20am today with a report of the incident and a DSO team was first on the scene to offer assistance to householders in the area. The team were able to locate the cause of the flooding, an overloaded drain which had been unable to cope with the exceptional amount of rainfall overnight.

The DSO team were then able to contact the responsible agencies, in this case Oxfordshire County Council and the Environment Agency. The flooding incident subsided by 1pm.

Abingdon Cllr Jim Halliday said: "The response of the Vale's DSO team was exemplary and no doubt helped to minimise the problems which may have occurred from the flooding. In recent years we have been very successful in reducing the incidences of serious flooding in the Vale considerably and I am pleased that we still have the expertise and the manpower available to deal quickly and effectively with local problems."