FAULTS at Bedford Pumping Station and a lack of grid and drain maintenance could have been the cause of the devastating Boxing Day flooding in the borough, it has been revealed.

In a meeting held at the Turnpike Gallery on Thursday, representatives from the Environment Agency and the council were questioned by residents and Leigh MP Andy Burnham about what happened and how they will stop a repeat of the floods.

It was revealed, by the Environment Agency, that on the day of the floods, one of the seven pumps at the Bedford Pumping Station was out for repair and two further pumps failed due to overheating, because of the capacity they were working at.

The council also responded to claims that the grids and drainage systems around Lilford Park and its surrounding streets had not been maintained properly.

The council revealed that the grids were on an annual cleaning scheme and that they had not therefore been cleaned since January 2014, meaning they contained almost 12 months of debris.

It was further exposed that the drains in Lilford Park had not been invested in for ‘a while’, with the Environment Agency stating that there is evidence of damage and collapsed drains under Lilford Park.

Chairing the meeting, Mr Burnham welcomed residents, of which there were more than 60 present, and asked the Environment Agency to explain the Bedford System and in turn what went wrong.

John Hunt, mechanical electrical engineer for the Environment Agency, said: “The Bedford System protects 800 homes from flooding. It balances water coming down from Penleach and Lilford Park Brook.

“When Bedford’s Pumping Station level of capacity is exceeded, Lilford controls the flows and stores water at Lilford Park.

“In December we had an issue with one of the pumps in Bedford Station and that was away for repair, but when we did the refurbishment in 2012 it allowed us to have one pump out at any one time.

“During the event two of the pumps at Bedford overheated due to the operating conditions they were working under and were unavailable for a short period of time.”

Mr Hunt also added that debris stopped one of the sluices working at Lilford Park causing an overspill and that the water didn’t take the designed route back into Bedford Brook.

Mr Hunt added: “The amount of water was in excess of anything that we had been able to test the new design for, so we did have some issues with the pumping station.

“The station would have been able to cope with the capacity of water if it had flowed in the direction we had designed it to.

“A formal investigation into why the flow path didn’t work as designed will be looked into.”

Areas such as Greenways, Elmridge and Lilford in Leigh were the most badly affected areas in the constituency, but Tyldesley and Westleigh were also hit.

Mark Garrett, Environment Agency flood risk officer, said that the Greater Manchester catchment area saw ‘nearly a month’s worth of rain fall in 24 hours’ with ‘half a million tonnes falling onto the catchment’.

And while the council’s flood strategy officer Alan Carver maintained that the gullies surrounding the Lilford Park were in a ‘healthy condition’ and all ‘working as designed’, it was publicised that the council’s ‘annual cleaning’ would be upped to four times a year following the concerns highlighted.

Karl Battersby, economy and environment officer for the council, said: "£100,000 has been committed to repair the drains and £30,000 to maintain those drains in the areas which have had particular issues.

"An additional £47,000 will also be spent on drainage surveys.

"We are taking this very seriously and are committing that we are going to do more."

The council has also said it will work with Friends of Lilford Park to discuss improvements.

A formal investigation conducted by the Environment Agency and the council is now under way, with a meeting to discuss its findings promised by Mr Burnham once the report has been published.