A group of Mill Creek Road businesses and residents are set to meet with a Government engineer next week to discuss flooding in the area.

While the Mill Creek group has called on the Government to act on the longstanding issue, claiming the high water levels pose a safety risk and cost the businesses thousands of dollars each day flooding occurs, the Ministry of Public Works has said it does not have the funds to rectify the issue, calling for a “collective effort”.

Earlier this week, the Mill Creek group questioned the Government’s decision to raise the road at Bernard Park rather than address the flooding issue at its source.

Responding yesterday, a Public Works spokeswoman said: “Comparing the work done at Bernard’s Park to the work that needs to be done at Mill Creek is like comparing apples to oranges.

“Firstly, the work done in the Bernard’s Park area was on a Government-owned road, whereas Mill Creek Road is a private road. Secondly, the work completed at Bernard’s Park was a relatively straightforward road reconstruction scheme, whereas the work which needs to be done at Mill Creek is far more complex, requiring extensive engineering design and specification that would be substantially more costly.

“Put simply, the canal is a long-term challenge and whatever work is done needs to be carefully considered to avoid a serious knock-on effect to other areas or neighbouring properties.”

While the spokeswoman said that raising the level of Mill Creek Road may help to reduce flooding on the road, it would have a knock-on effect, requiring work on adjoining buildings and properties.

“It also needs to be remembered that floodwater will find its own level through any underground drainage routes or permeable ground, so we need to be careful about raising the sides of the canal,” the spokeswoman added.

“Following the meeting with the Mill Creek group in July, Ministry staff have reviewed survey work to enable the feasibility of these options to be assessed by the group and their own engineers in conjunction with Ministry engineers. Our engineers will be back in contact with the group shortly for further discussions.”

Ed Faries, speaking on behalf of the Mill Creek group, responded that the group has been calling on the Government to fix the canal, not the road.

He also stated that the Government had failed to respond to several other issues, including cracks in the sluice gate installed three years ago to help prevent flooding and the failure to implement the ten-point plan laid out in a 2004 study.

“The Government owns the canal,” he said. “It is the minister’s responsibility to upkeep it. We are willing to absorb the costs that relate directly to the road, but the Government needs to acknowledge their responsibility for the canal.

“We are not asking the Government to fix our road. We are asking it to take care of its own canal.”

However he added yesterday afternoon that the Government had reached out about the issue, and that the group will meet with an engineer next week.