Amazing. I actually witnessed a vehicle cleaning my drain. After seven years of living here I now have a drain three foot deep. It is like having a water butt again in the road instead of a three-foot deep pool of solid mud. Now this drain can now hold 40 or 50 litres of water which is enough to stop my area from flooding. It is a simple device but if kept clean helps to stop the flooding.

We pay for this service in our council taxes but do they always clean them well? The firm who did mine the other day did do a really good job but if it was full of mud and soil would their contract cover the cleaning of the depth of it?

How many times have you seen a cleaning lorry over a drain causing a tailback of traffic? To later inspect that drain, to how well it was cleaned? Clean should be like a water butt, three foot deep and not with soil six inches from the top. If it downpours the bigger the hole the less chance of a flood. We need to clean our drains regularly and that is something I am happy to pay my council tax to.

However I do pay income tax too and national insurance plus car tax which I am less than happy about value for money. The roads are still awful. The floods have made them worse. If you ride a motorbike it must be like taking your life on the line every time. You pay good high insurances and taxes to expect a safe country.

Damaged roads are not good value for money but do we get our money back? Councils and governments needs to cut costs but if you repair poorly or badly and allow floods to damage roads further your cost will grow and solicitors would sadly rule the day instead of a democratic society.

Andrew Hungerford, Churchlands, North Bradley.