Residents of Ashley Road expressed their dismay during the full meeting of Salisbury City Council after the flooding of their homes for which they said the Environment Agency was at fault.

During the meeting on Monday, January 22, multiple residents stood up to speak.

Peter Johnson, 82, who has lived on Ashley Road his whole life, said he had never seen the area flood before the event on Saturday, January 6.

Peter said: “The Environment Agency didn’t put in the first line of defence - they had 18 months.”

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Environment Agency area flood and coastal risk manager Ron Curtis, who was at the meeting along with Environment Agency team leader Andy Wallis to provide an update on the Salisbury River Park Project, responded to some of the concerns raised by residents.

Ron said an immediate adjustment that would be made was the lowering of the threshold which would trigger a flood warning in the area.

Both Ron and Andy said this was the only measure that could be done immediately before further work is completed on the River Park Project.

Many residents blamed the actions of the Environment Agency and the behind-schedule progress of the River Park Project on the flooding.

Peter later told the Journal that a civil servant told him his flooded home had been “bad luck”.

Peter said: “If he’s lived in my place, he wouldn’t call it bad luck, he’d call it incompetence.”