WITH a heat wave sweeping across the Five Valleys in the past week the SNJ decided to look back on a summer when the weather wasn’t quite so bright.

Torrential rain and flooding caused chaos for commuters, leaving house holders and businesses counting the cost.

The average rainfall for June is 50mm yet during the same month in 2007 over 125mm fell, making it the wettest June in 50 years.

Homeowners in Slad Road were faced with more than a foot of water in their back gardens and Lloyds Pharmacy opposite Park Gardens was forced to shut when its shop floor was covered in several inches of water.

Lydia Mescheles, who has lived in Slad Road for 52 years, was turned away from the chemist to collect a prescription.

“I have never seen anything like this in all my life,” she said.

Andy Read a then town councillor who lived in Uplands Road next to Slad Road, watched on as the water rose quickly.

“People were bailing out the water from their houses,” he said. “The river was up to their waists in their gardens.

“It flooded quite badly a few years ago but this is about as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”