Council leader Rachael Robathan talking to a resident hit by flooding in Maida Vale

• ON Monday night dozens of basement flats on Shirland Road and Kilburn Park Road were flooded up to three feet deep.

I saw heartbreaking scenes of residents piling their ruined belongings in the street. This flood should never have happened.

In 2015 Thames Water built £17million flood defences for Maida Vale including two vast underground reservoirs specifically designed to contain flash flooding.

Once the London Fire Brigade attended and diverted the drains the flood waters receded. “It was like pulling a plug from a bath”, one resident told me.

We need answers. Why were these defences not activated in time? And what compensation will Thames Water pay to our residents?

CLLR GEOFF BARRACLOUGH
Labour, Maida Vale ward