CIRENCESTER Mayor Joe Harris has lambasted Thames Water as “morally repugnant” saying the company’s local flood defence work was inadequate and letting residents down.

Thames Water has been working with the Environmental Agency to tackle flooding in affected areas and told The Standard the Cirencester and South Cerney sewer system had been surveyed and cleared out at points where there were blockages and build-ups of debris.

That was not good enough according to Cllr Harris, who helped residents in the mopping up exercise as flood waters rose in Cirencester last November.

"They haven’t made any repairs and they haven’t found anything so it’ll probably happen again this winter or when we next get heavy rainfall," he said. “It’s really worrying – we need a review of the whole system.

“They’ve cleared the sewers out but that’s not addressing the problem."

A spokesman for Thames Water said as well as the maintenance, the company was continuing to monitor water flow in both Cirencester and South Cerney, which has also been badly affected by recent floods.

And he said the company would be contacting Cllr Harris to discuss his concerns.

Mike Stuart, chairman of South Cerney Parish Council, said he was confident Thames Water was doing 'everything it could' to help avoid any repeat.

South Cerney was also badly affected by flooding last winter, but Mr Stuart said he was happy the water company was doing all it could to try and avoid any repeat.

"Since Christmas, we’ve had three or four meetings with them," he said. “Over the last three months, Thames Water has achieved all of their goals – usually under our guidance.”