People living in Woodingdean are calling for action because of “biblical” floods, with surface water damaging their homes increasingly often.
Ian Leak, of The Ridgeway, told Brighton and Hove City Council that flash-flooding had been happening there for 20 years but had increased “dramatically”.
In the past 14 months, homes have been flooded 10 times, causing misery and stress, with 18in to 24in (60cm) of water rushing into Mr Leak’s home in a matter of minutes.
Sometimes, the water was contaminated with sewage and even when it was not their homes had been damaged.
At a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall on Thursday (1 February), Mr Leak said that neighbours had formed a support group, messaging each other for help and support.
Mr Leak said: “These are flash floods, almost biblical as it feels at the time. We have essentially become our own emergency service.
“We try to deal with the flooding as it’s happening. We have no notice, any time of day, any time of night.
“It’s very stressful without that notice. They’re unpredictable events.”
They have reported surface flood water to the Highways Agency and sewage leaks to Southern Water but neither has the budget to carry out significant work.
He said: “This can’t continue. We desperately need more road surface water infrastructure to capture this heavy and consistent rainwater. The drains are currently too easily overwhelmed.”
Mr Leak asked what the council would do to address and resolve the problem.
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, who chairs the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee, said that the situation sounded distressing for Mr Leak and his neighbours.
Councillor Rowkins said: “Barely a council meeting goes by, either in my committee or in full council, when flooding and flood risk management doesn’t come up.
“What you’ve shown is the importance of residents bringing this to our attention.”
He said that Southern Water was responsible for the sewers and the council for managing surface water.
The council highways team had worked with Southern Water to investigate the drains in The Ridgeway, he said, and found that they had “physical obstructions” and were damaged. They had since been repaired.
Councillor Rowkins said that if the issues continued then these repairs would have proved ineffective.
He said: “These problems are happening in other parts of the city as well and we need to work better with Southern Water.
“They’re keen to reduce surface water overloading the system because that’s one of the things that contributes to sewage outflows into the sea which, at least from a reputation management point of view, they are very keen to avoid and reduce.”
Councillor Rowkins offered to visit the area with officials and with his colleague Councillor Trevor Muten, who chairs the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee. Councillor Muten is a hydrogeologist by profession.
Do a FOI request asking how often the gullies have been emptied out in your area. Take pictures of all the blocked ones.
And maybe consider how many front gardens have been concreted/paved over so that more of the surface water has only one way to go – into the road to overwhelm the drains. Perhaps you need a hydrologist rather than a hydrogeologist to check the situation.