Anderson hopes to solve flood issues

Mr Anderson said: “Flooding problems at the Bannview Road have been an ongoing issue for many years. In recent weeks however, flooding became a particular problem due to the heavy rainfall that was experienced in the area.

“At times the road was a virtual river and left residents with much devastation with some experiencing property damage and some residents being unable to leave their homes.

“A few weeks ago Transport NI met onsite with myself and my colleague Alderman McCrum at short notice to discuss our serious concerns about the flooding that had taken place. It became clear that a multi-agency approach including Transport NI and the Rivers Agency was needed to prevent such flooding taking place in the future.”

He continued: “Last week I met with the Rivers Agency and local residents to further discuss the recent flooding problems. I believe that we had a positive meeting and Rivers Agency officials accepted that there was an issue that needed to be resolved.

“At the height of the flooding stones and debris were being washed down from the high point of the road to the low point onto verges, into people’s gardens and also blocking gullies which prevented rainwater from being able to drain away.

“I firmly believe that there needs to be an engineering solution to this problem. I now hope that all relevant authorities take action to ensure that flooding does not cause the same problems on the Bannview Road in the future.”