HASLEMERE Town Council has taken action to unblock 24 drains, left uncleared by Surrey County Council for five years, and which flood the A333 leading from Hindhead to the A3.

The county confirmed the stretch of road is not a priority for clearing, despite repeated requests for jetting by the town council. The drains are not yet plotted on the county council’s interactive map, so residents are unable to report them online.

So the town council arranged for all the drains on the stretch of road – which was the old A3 until the Hindhead tunnel was completed – to be cleared by a private contractor, last week.

Haslemere Town Council (HTC) was awarded £6,000 of funding by Surrey County Council for the 2015/16 financial year, to be spent on “unprioritised works” it would normally do.

They include grass cutting, clearing vegetation overhanging roads and footways, weeding footways of weeds and cleaning signs. The town council has cut back some vegetation and cleaned road signs with the cash, but will have used most of it to clear the drains along the A333.

At the last full town council meeting, Malcolm Carter said the chances of getting the county council to jet the drains was zero. “It’s a scandal Surrey takes no action on drains,” he said. “There’s regular flooding and they need two days work.”

Councillor Jim Edwards estimated it would cost around £4,000 to unblock the drains. He said: “Both our county councillors have funds specifically for this situation. This would be the ideal item for them to spend their money on.”