CHESHAM councillor Pam Crawford is calling for better drainage to relieve flooding in The Vale and Vale Road.

Flooding has been annoying people in the area since January and a stretch of The Vale from Greenway to Wigginton Road has been closed since then.

The closure started when Buckinghamshire County Council put down pipes along the roadside to try to drain water off the flooded land.

Cllr Crawford, leader of the Lib Dems on the county council, is putting forward a resolution on the subject to Thursday's meeting of the council. She said The Vale hadn't got a proper drainage system, just soakaways.

Usually there is no flooding because water is extracted by Thames Water via a pumping station along The Vale and fed into reservoirs near St Leonards or Aston Clinton. But the reservoirs are full, the pumping station isn't taking so much water and several streams that haven't been seen for 30 years have started to flow.

Cllr Crawford said: "We have to put in drainage to take it away if we are going to have increased rainfall."

Cllr Crawford said the county engineers knew something had to be done and there was £40,000 in next year's budget, but that wasn't enough and it should be about £80,000.

She added: "I am asking for adequate drainage whatever it costs."

Nearer to Chesham, in Vale Road, there is a surface water drainage system and a sewerage system. Both have caused trouble

Alison Derrick, the county council's area co-ordinator for Chiltern and South Bucks, said the drains would be inspected with CCTV cameras to see what was the matter.

The sewers belonged to Thames Water. Flood water was getting into them, either through holes in the pipes or off roofs, and the sewers were not coping.

Cllr Crawford said sewage was coming up. She added: "It is causing lots of angst to residents in Vale Road."