ILMIINSTER residents that have been affected by the flooding have taken their concerns to the town council.

A meeting of the planning, highways and transport committee met tonight (August 1) at the Minster Rooms. 

Around 50 residents turned up to hear the concerns from around the community.

Business owners and residents alike turned out to talk of the horrors they've experienced during the flash-flooding take hit the town on Sunday, July 23. 

The committee made it clear that the purpose of the meeting was for people to voice their concerns only and that the topic was not up for debate. 

County Cllr Linda Vijeh attended the meeting alongside MP for South Somerset Marcus Fysh. 

Cllr Vijeh stated that she was the responsible person for bringing the residents' concerns to the attention of Somerset County Council. 

She said: "I would like to offer my apologies, but those words are too mild. I can only offer my deepest regret for what has happened." 

Cllr Vijeh said she felt she had failed the residents by failing to get a representative from the Environment Agency to attend the meeting. 

She read out a detailed response from Somerset County Council, but stated that she had only received that thanks to intervention from Mr Fysh. 

Mr Fysh did not speak. 

A resident of Wolf Street, Terry Fisher, spoke of his ordeal of not being able to live in his house because of the flooding, and business owner Caroline Speke, of Sliver St Dairy, also couldn't open her shop due to the damage caused.

Many of the concerns raised were in regards to the maintenance of drainage around the town. 

One Ditton Street resident, Kerri Scrivens, had been collecting signatures on a petition in the wake of the flooding. 

At the time of the meeting, she had 213 written signatures and 159 online all demanded some sort of solution to the flooding. 

She expressed her concerns with the drains but said she did not want to focus on that as the problem, and she, like many others, would be happy with any sort of solution. 

The concerns were collected by the committee members in order to take them to the full town council meeting taking place on August 15.