PLEASE let me use your columns to offer the sympathy of all us councillors and the staff of the borough council to those whose homes and celebrations suffered so severely from the wicked flood on New Year's Eve along the Callington Road.
It must have been a truly horribly experience I have called for a full report because I believe the residents and everyone else deserve to have the facts.
During that night 75 millimetres of rain fell on Tavistock. Probably a record. Few of the town's streams and drains could be expected to cope: most of us who were out and about experienced problems with torrents of water underfoot wherever we were.
Thus most of the flooding along Callington Road was what is called surface-run-off from further up the hill and the catchment area north of Boughthayes. The situation was made worse by the sudden blocking of the drain below the manhole outside number 6. The drain received not only its share of the rain but also melted snow from the area around the building site behind the road and the drain was jammed by silt, leaves, twigs, stones and building materials including logs and slates, as we saw on your front page last week.
At the council's insistence, the builders put a grid on the entrance to the underground drain on their site some time ago. It did not block up that night but evidently let through too much silt and debris with the powerful weight of water coming from the stream during the downpour.
A lot has to be done urgently to prevent this tragic event from happening again. The council are in touch with the builders to redesign their grid and the water course running down to it and to drain the whole building site more efficiently.
We are in contact with South West Water to find out why they have so far washed their hands of responsibility for their drains in that area and to get them to improve the whole system.
We must look at our own procedures, too, to ensure we are always prepared for such extreme weather. Especially, we must tighten up on planning procedures so as never again to give permission, as the previous council did, for building development on a site so vulnerable and liable to exacerbate town centre flooding.
Cllr R Eberlie
Cllr for Tavistock North