Leominster could face new risks from rising river levels because of a lack of maintenance on flood defences it was claimed this week.

Leonard Chase, chairman of the Lugg Internal Drainage Board, fears the effectiveness of major works carried out 40 years ago, could be put in jeopardy because of 'a lack of upkeep'.

The board chief voiced his concerns to The Hereford Times because he feels politicians are not listening and officials in major public agencies are too remote and lack local knowledge.

Mr Chase says the Lugg and its tributary, the River Arrow, are becoming progressively clogged with debris in the form of trees and bushes. Riverside alders afflicted by disease have died and fallen in huge numbers.

Much of the wood floats downstream and many logs sink when they are waterlogged. The end result is clogged-up rivers.

"I have seen 100 tonnes or more building up against bridges and forming a barrier across the river - both the Lugg and Arrow are affected. It's no good having a 'fire brigade' approach to dealing with it. By then it's too late," said Mr Chase.

Regular floods

Grant-aided Pioneer river clearance schemes have ended. Overall, too few resources are now invested in preventing disaster, he says.

The name of Leominster was once a byword for flooding. Up to 1960 there were 22 floods in 20 years. People stranded in flooded homes in the lowest part of the town had to be rescued by boat. Major works - including the digging of a river relief channel along part of the disused Kington-Leominster railway track - has given the town more than 40 flood-free years.

Leonard Chase has been a drainage board member for all of those four decades and says he is dismayed by current neglect. "I am completely unsatisfied about the state of maintenance of the Leominster Scheme," he said.

The whole length of the Lugg became a Site of Special Scientific Interest ten years ago and while welcoming the development, Mr Chase believes the conservation agenda may have encroached too far into river management.

"The clock could be turned back," he warns, if the authorities do not spend money on clearance or allow work to be carried out under local control with the benefit of local knowledge.