How would Bexhill cope with flood?

He said: "I always look when I am out cycling around at how many drains have not been cleaned, and lots have weeds growing out of them."

He contacted Graham Furness, Network Manager of East Sussex County Council, to highlight the problem and was told the policy of East Sussex Highways is to clean drains in urban areas once a year - however this has not always been possible.

Mr Furness said there was difficulty with gully cleaning in heavily built up areas such as Amherst Road and Wickham Avenue because of parked cars preventing the sub-contractors from reaching the drains and cleaning them out.

He said however the situation was "being reviewed" and East Sussex Highway's was "endeavouring to reach an appropriate solution".

"Once this solution has been reached and the programme of works can be rescheduled we will be in contact with Rother District Council to inform them of the outcome and if necessary to liaise with the street cleansing department for any road sweeping that may need to be carried out."

Cllr Wood commented: "So many drains are full where yellow lines are, and even outside my home - where no cars park - the drain has not been cleaned for over two years, and then I had to request it to be done.

"However the success of this story is that I have at last achieved to get the drains cleaned, maybe not washed still, then the cover of the drain is sprayed with white paint to denote that the drain has been done so that the ESCC highway officer can check it when he drives past.

"I have had many of the public say they have not seen the drains cleaned for the long time, and how so many are full throughout Bexhill, so should we have a storm at least the drains will now be able to take the surface water away, and save us having streams of water running down our streets and possibly causing flooding in the lower areas of the town."

"Now we know this contract is done every year, we can look out for it being done every autumn."