We had to pay for our own flood defences

Residents took matters into their own hands after 10-YEAR wait for action

- By JOSEPH TIMAN

AFTER 10 years of waiting in fear that their homes will be flooded again, residents have taken traumatised matters into their own hands.

Dozens of homes have been flooded in Riverside Drive in Prestolee over the last decade, including 39 properties which were damaged in the Boxing Day floods of 2015. Five years later, a further 22 houses were flooded on the street near the banks of the River Irwell.

Last year, residents were told that new flood defences worth more than £30m that had been planned would no longer be built due to a funding gap.

Fed up of living in fear, residents have raised more than £5,000 for their own temporary flood defences and over the last three weeks, they have come together to install them.

Farnworth and Kearsley First councillor Tracey Wilkinson has told the Manchester Evening News that the community spirit has been 'unbelievable' but she believes it shouldn't be this way.