WELSH Water held an emergency meeting with Caldicot residents to discuss how to solve flooding problems on an estate.

Months after a £1.2 million sewage system was installed, residents of Castle Lea and Chepstow Road were faced with an emergency clean-up on Friday after a flash downpour caused water and sewage to leak from manhole covers.

Representatives from the water organisation met concerned locals, chief executive of Monmouthshire council Paul Matthews and Cllr. John Marshall to thrash out the problem on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Castle Lea residents told the Argus how they have endured years of problems with excess water flooding their streets and properties, after large amounts of rainfall.

Cllr. Marshall described the meeting as a 'positive' step in the right direction, despite several issues.

He said: "They spoke to residents for around two hours and we need to wait for a report to see how much rainfall we had and whether it was just a freak event. Castle Lea is unadopted land which creates some difficulties."

Castle Lea resident Robert Vaughan, 63, said the flooding incident was the first time it rained heavily since the works, and people were disappointed to see the build up of water.

He said: "Most of us blame it on the extra development round here and they want to build more houses through the LDP. It may just be a few teething problems, but they had to wash the road on Saturday because of the sewage and we are concerned this will happen again."

A further meeting has now been earmarked for August 18.

A spokesman for Welsh Water said: "We sympathise with residents in the area who have experienced problems with flooding and assure them that we are doing all we can to investigate the possible cause."