A NORTH Tawton woman is threatening to take West Devon Borough Council to court, after her home was flooded for the third time in 12 months last Thursday night.

Up to a foot of floodwater poured into cottages in Mill Lane — homes which have not recovered from the last flooding incident at the end of October.

Resident Margaret Pridham said despite repeated calls, no action had been taken to clear a dam of trees and debris on the River Taw downriver of Mill Lane, or to clear badly silted areas under the bridge.

She said: 'This is the third time we've been flooded in 12 months — we are totally disgusted with West Devon Borough Council — we feel very let down by them.

'There's no excuse why the waterways can't be cleared. It's a normal thing to do to clear a waterway to stop people from flooding.

'We want compensation for being in this situation — we have no alternative.'

Mrs Pridham moved into temporary accommodation in December last year when her cottage was flooded for the first time. She moved back in September and has suffered two flooding incidents since then.

Neighbour Amanda Kitchen said: 'I've had enough of it — we are extremely fed up.'

Mrs Kitchen said the misery of flooding and the worry that it could easily occur again made it difficult to plan for Christmas

'It's so exhausting, all the time you are worrying about it.

'We got flooded six weeks ago and the house was almost habitable, then it happened again on Thursday.

'It's the kids I feel sorry for. My children had to be carried through three feet of floodwater at 3 o'clock in the morning.'

Mrs Kitchen felt the borough and town councils were 'doing their best' but it was not good enough.

'The council blame the Environment Agency, they blame South West Water — it goes round in a big circle and no-one will take responsibility,' she said.

'I personally feel the river should be dredged,' added Mrs Kitchen.

Firecrews from North Tawton and Okehampton battled for hours to keep water levels down last Thursday night.

Sub-officer Twiggy Lake from North Tawton said: 'We had five cottages in about a foot of water.

'One family was evacuated — the rest of the occupants had to move upstairs. They had their furniture upstairs anyway from the last flooding.

'Three of the cottages were really saturated - they had the builders in anyway, from last time.'

Mr Lake said the pumps were going for hours, trying to keep the flood water down.

Nick Payne, the borough's head of environmental services, said he was aware Mrs Pridham had instructed a solicitor to act on her behalf, but he struggled to see on what she could base any claim.

'We have no statutory responsibility for the situation. What we are doing is using permissive powers to try to understand better the causes of flooding in North Tawton,' he said.

The £20,000 consultant's report commissioned by the borough would be the key to tackle the problem and would be used to back funding applications for appropriate flood defence work which could cost up to £500,000, said Mr Payne.

He said dredging of the river would be a matter for the Environment Agency — dredging under the bridge in North Tawton would fall to the county council, but again, it was necessary to wait for the consultant's recommendations, which are imminent.

John Burnett, MP for West Devon and Torridge, said his heart went out to the flood victims, who were living with a 'Sword of Damocles' over their heads.

Mr Burnett was due to speak on the subject at question time in the House of Commons yesterday (Wednesday).

'As soon as the consultant's report is published I will be calling a meeting of all the agencies and we will be hammering out a solution to these problems, which must be implemented as soon as possible,' said Mr Burnett.