FARNHAM residents have expressed their concern surrounding the current appearance of the River Wey, and the potentially severe consequences that may arise from associated water levels. In September 1968, Farnham witnessed its worst floods in living memory, as torrential rain caused the Wey to burst its banks. Properties situated on low-lying parts of the town, such as Abbey Street and Bridge Square, were flooded, while Gostrey Meadow was transformed into a lake overnight. As a consequence, in 1970, the river was dredged in the Farnham area, and banks were reinforced with wire mesh and large rocks. Regular maintenance was also undertaken on the river banks until the 1980s. Yet, in recent years, the River Wey has been allowed to "let its hair down", with silt and gravel deposits and a multiplicity of flora narrowing the river banks to a pace apart at points. When the Wey reached the daunting height of three inches from the top of its bank in Gostrey Meadow on January 1, 2003, following heavy downpours, William Furnivall made repeated contact with the Environment Agency (EA) and then MP Virginia Bottomley. In a letter he stated: "Since 1970, it does not appear much maintenance has been carried out on the river, nor its banks (except for the occasional cutting of reeds), which obviously only exacerbates the propensity for the river to flood in the future. "The original cleaned up land drainage system in the water meadows by Moor Park has become overgrown, and at one place, one of the myriad growing gravel beds has spawned a healthy young willow tree growing in mid river." Mr Furnivall's mother is a resident of Abbey Street, which backs onto the Wey, and he remains perplexed at what he perceives to be a lack of pro-active measures. "The height of the Wey during times of heavy rain has been slowly rising year on year, and I find it incredible that it has only received scarce maintenance since 1987," he said. And Mr Furnivall is not alone in his concerns. "In the middle of town it's a right eyesore. It's full of cans and rubbish and full up with weeds. Up until about 20 years ago they used to maintain the river, but it's not been touched for the past 18-20 years - it's a terrible mess out there," said Ray Fulford, a resident of Abbey Street for some 38 years, and a victim of the 1968 flood. "We are getting worried that if nothing is done soon and we get two or three days of rain, it's going to be over the top again - it's not very nice to find your house full of water," he recalled. "They pumped 12,000 gallons out of here in the morning and another 12,000 gallons in the afternoon." "For six years I have been fighting with the river authorities and it's like hitting my head against the wall," declared Ann Fulford. "When we were children we could play in that river out there - there was a path and it was always clear. There were normal weeds underwater in the river, but this is beyond a joke - it's blocking the river," said Vic Burge, another long term resident of Abbey Street. "They went to all that trouble to redevelop the river all that time ago and now it's been overrun by weeds and there was even a tree growing out of it by the Maltings!," he added." In response to these concerns, Terry Huggins, flood defence officer from the Environment Agency said: "They say it hasn't flooded since 1968, so hopefully that says something. "One of the problems at the moment that is misleading people, is that the water level is low, which gives the impression that the bed is higher, but it's really a case that the water level is down. Consequently there's a bit more of the bed exposed in places and more vegetation is evident and this is the time of year when marginal vegetation is at its peak." When questioned about maintenance of the river banks, an EA spokesman replied: "It is not true to say that this river has been neglected for the last 20 years or so. "There is an annual programme of inspection and maintenance, and this programme ensures that any build up of in-channel material, such as sand silt and gravel, or debris that has fallen into the river which - in our opinion - poses a flood risk will be removed. "In 2003 we removed some 30-odd tonnes of built up in-channel material from the River Wey running through Farnham," he added.