When I worked for Wiltshire County Council in the 1970s and ’80s, it was a progressive council whose philosophy was pro-active rather than reactive.

Why am I not surprised therefore that the recent Trowbridge flooding was exacerbated because the administration no longer has a policy of cleaning out gullies on a regular basis?

Moreover, it appears to count for nothing if you go online, as I did, asking for the gully to be cleaned on Bradford Road at the junction with Brook Road. I had a response on April 28 to say that the service request had been sent to Wiltshire Council.

Yet nothing was done which makes me think that the online service is simply a sop. It has taken the recent flooding to get any action at all and last Saturday at 5pm a gully cleaning lorry was at last present (at overtime rates no doubt). This was definitely not a reaction to my logged request, when it could easily have been dealt with at far less cost to ratepayers.

I don’t blame the employees of Balfour Beatty. Those left after the recent redundancies are hard working individuals, but when you have a company management whose aim is maximum profit rather than public service is it any wonder we have these problems? This attitude is not helped one iota by Jane Scott and her Conservative administration trying unsuccessfully to justify their contract decisions in the face of ever increasing public concerns.

Had we not had the most recent flooding I’m positive that nothing would have been done in Bradford Road, because, demonstrably, Balfour Beatty management have proven time and time again that they cannot get their act together.

Ten weeks to get a simple request carried out is an atrocious indictment and when you look at the gullies between Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge, with many blocked by mud and sprouting weeds, more flooding is inevitable. This must be mirrored across Wiltshire.

I have also asked for a similar blocked gully just beyond the canal bridge on Trowbridge Road, Bradford on Avon, to be cleared. Again the request was acknowledged and has been totally ignored.

Last Saturday will not be the last occasion it floods unless urgent and immediate action is taken.

Beleaguered Wiltshire residents may think they are up against it with potholes not being mended, grass uncut, and now the prospect of being forced to pay for green bin collections (we'll be paying for blue bin collections next and then forced into collections every three weeks because of the abject failure of our two local MPs to get a reasonable funding settlement for Wiltshire).

However, I was recently in Herefordshire and read of a local councillor rightly lambasting the contractor there for not carrying out proper work on potholes. Who was that contractor? Yes, you have guessed it – Balfour Beatty.

I doubt whether Jane Scott will do anything to secure any service improvement. She can complain until the cows come home at not having enough money from central government but when you don't even get the basics right with the money you have got, something is rotten in the state of Wiltshire.

If only we had a few more Conservative councillors of the calibre of Graham Payne (whose opinions she appears to dismiss), or Independents like Jeff Osborn.

Wiltshire could then get back to the type of council I worked for that commanded respect rather than the ridicule engendered by her leadership and the inept decisions her cabinet appears adept at making with increasing regularity.

John Baxter, Deverell Close, Bradford on Avon.