CONCERNED councillors say they want to see the rest of their town’s flooded roads dealt with after an infamous Halstead road was repaired.

Halstead Town Council is calling for further action after roads flooded across the town at the weekend.

Heavy rain pooled in roads which included Sudbury Road, Stanley Road and the A1124 at Bluebridge.

One notable absence from the list of flooded roads, however, was Bridge Street.

Following intense pressure from the town council, Essex Highways carried out works to clear flooding issues from the notorious street.

Previously the flooding would be bad enough to damage the numerous businesses on Bridge Street with many now reportedly struggling to get insurance.

However, while the town council is pleased to see Bridge Street in tact, the council’s chairman and mayor Jackie Pell says more needs to be done.

She is also concerned Essex Highways have not said if they will maintain the Bridge Street repairs.

She said: “They fixed Bridge Street because they were under pressure to do so.

“They often say they’ll have a look within 28 days, but 28 days isn’t good enough.

“Highways is not fit for purpose, it's not good enough.

“They’re just letting them get worse and end up being more expensive to fix.

“Even then they don’t fix it properly in the first place.

“Bridge Street was down to the town council. They only acted after we really kicked up a fuss.

“The county council needs to start looking at themselves, people complain the most about roads, footpaths, and flooding."

In response, an Essex Highways spokesman said: “Across Essex we have over 320,000 drainage assets to maintain on a wide variety of road networks.

"The drainage in Bridge Street is cleansed annually as part of our cyclical programme in Braintree District as is what has been described as Bluebridge. 

"Sudbury Road is cleansed bi-annually and will be cleaned in this year’s programme.

"Stanley Road is a local road and is cleansed as part of a rolling district-wide programme across the county.

"Outside of these cyclical programmes, we also attend sites where defects have been identified. 

"During periods of extreme rainfall flash flooding can occur. 

"This happens when the volume of water overwhelms drainage systems and is temporarily 'trapped' on the road surface until systems begin to clear.”