FLOODING fears have been raised across South Lakeland – just a week into autumn.

Persistent downpours on Friday and Sunday prompted county councillors to report flooding at Broughton-in-Furness, Arnside, Heversham, Burton-in-Kendal and Milnthorpe.

However, Ulverston coped well with the deluge and the county council did not receive any reports of flooding over the weekend, a meeting of South Lakeland Local Committee in Kendal heard on Monday.

County councillor Matt Brereton said Foxfield Road at Kepplewray, Broughton, was hit.

The area was identified as a potential ‘problem’ two years ago when Kirkby-in-Furness flooded but the parish council had told him that work to fix it had ‘stalled’.

“I’ve seen some really worrying evidence of how the rain has affected Broughton, not at the weekend but Tuesday of last week,” said Cllr Brereton.

Cllr Mark Wilson said despite the ‘terrible’ rain of Sunday, the system had coped in Ulverston.

“During the five hours that I was wandering around looking, a lot of the water was going down the right channels and in the right way,” said Cllr Wilson.

Peter Hoskins, area highways manager for Cumbria County Council, said the authority had not received any calls over the weekend regarding flooding.

Some residents had sent evidence of flooding on Friday, although it had disappeared once it stopped raining, he said.

“In the majority of cases when we get this severe deluge it’s a capacity issue rather than inherent problems with the drainage system,” said Mr Hoskins. “I am sure there are problems in some areas but we haven’t been swamped by reports.”

Cllr Peter McSweeney who represents Arnside, Beetham and Milnthorpe said guidance needed to be issued to residents so they understood who to call.

He said he had taken an ‘awful’ lot of calls but people were confused over whether to ring the county council, United Utilities or the Environment Agency.

“The immediate reaction of most residents is it’s always the council’s fault. That clearly isn’t the case,” said Cllr McSweeney.

Cllr Stan Collins said the overlap of responsibilities caused confusion.

“The general rule is if the floodwater has toilet paper in it, then it’s a United Utilities problem,” said Cllr Collins, who represents the Upper Kent.