‘FED UP’ residents have emptied a flooded underpass which was under water for more than three weeks.

Equipped with buckets and donned in wellies, the group chucked, brushed, and pumped the A36 underpass, near Waitrose, free of the hazard, allowing locals to again use the pathway since it became unusable on December 19.

One of those to take part in the clean up on Friday was Salisbury resident of 30 years Jimmy Walker.

“It was just local people getting fed up with watching others struggling,” he told the Journal.

“To see mums not being able to get their buggies through, and also those who were disabled, we decided to do something.”

As part of the clean up, local flood wardens also got involved, lending a generator and pumps to the team in a bid to speed up their work.

Jimmy added: “I was extremely humbled by the comments from the public. One young lad even came up to us, rolled up his trousers, and started helping us.”

However, questions did arise as to why it took members of the public to act, instead of Wiltshire Council and Highways England.

Jimmy said: “It’s not about shaming the council, but about having policies in place so this does not happen again.”

When approached, the council said it had reported the matter to Highways England.

A Highways England spokesperson said: “We have been made aware of the issue and we’re looking into it as a matter of urgency.

“We are working with our Wiltshire Council partners towards addressing the issue, a specialist engineer will be investigating and once repaired, we will monitor the situation.

“We’d also encourage people to get in touch with us or the council immediately if they detect any problems and in the meantime, we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”