URGENT calls have been made to prevent a repeat of recent flooding in Stroud.

During the evening of Monday, June 12, flash floods hit Stroud, causing chaos on several roads, including Merrywalks, Beeches Green and Slad Road, which was the worst affected area.

One stretch of Slad Road outside the former Locking Hill surgery was completely covered in water, bringing back memories of the 2007 floods and also similar problems in 2020.

Stroud Town Council is calling for action, with mayor Stella Parkes saying: "We would strongly encourage Gloucestershire Highways to listen to residents and carry out work which will mitigate such an incident occurring again.

"Such storms have a greater impact on the town centre because it is on a hill.

"After such a dry period and such intense rain the drains and gutters cannot cope with the sudden influx of water."

MP Siobhan Baillie has met with residents, businesses and local authority representative to establish what can be done.

The MP, along with representatives from the Five Valleys Shopping Centre and Stroud District Council, walked around the shopping centre to look at the damage before visiting Slad Road to see properties affected.

Ms Baillie said: "The flooding has been devastatingly stressful for some business owners and families.

"Many residents fear flooding incidents even more now.

"We need to get to the bottom of what is happening and try to stop repeat incidents.

"There are several issues that need addressing quickly such as drains that look pretty blocked and inadequately sized drainage systems.

"There are also several questions about how drainage from higher up the town is flowing down and affecting lower properties.

"There needs to be urgent activity with locating and unblocking drains and increasing drainage facilities."

A further meeting is being arranged between Ms Baillie and representatives from  Gloucestershire County Council, Five Valleys Shopping Centre and Stroud District Council.

An SDC spokesperson said: "Drainage on both public and private land is not designed to manage water of this quantity.

"Surface water flooding is very difficult to predict and manage in the same way as we manage flood risk from rivers and streams.

"In response to how flooding in Slad Road has affected residents over the past decades, plus flooding elsewhere, SDC and partner organisations set up the Stroud valleys natural flood management project in 2014, covering the entire River Frome catchment, including the Slad Valley.

"These interventions are however designed to reduce the impact of floods originating from further up the valley in the stream and not from the surface water from the town."

Martyn Midgley, GCC area highway manager, said: "The short but intense rainfall seen in Stroud saw 65.5mm of rainfall between 6.15pm and 6.45pm, with this peaking at 214mm of rainfall per hour at one point.

"This level of rainfall is what would be expected in a tropical storm and our drainage systems were unable to cope with that level of rain.

"However, within an hour of the rain stopping, the surface water had been taken away by our drainage system.

"Previous flood events have been linked to Slad Brook which follows a number of narrow culverts which have in the past been unable to cope with significant additional water volumes."