HIGHWAYS chiefs have said gully cleaning crews will be deployed to the Stewponey area of Stourton after severe flooding left the busy junction under water.

The traffic light junction of the A449 Wolverhampton Road and A458 Bridgnorth Road became impassable amid torrential downpours last Thursday (September 26).

County councillor for Kinver Victoria Wilson described the heavy rain as “biblical weather” and said “there isn’t a drain in the world” that could have coped with such downpours.

She said: “The whole country saw a month’s worth of rain fall in the space of a few hours. It’s not that there’s a problem there. It’s like a bowl.

The Stewponey junction, Stourton, under water on September 26 after heavy rainThe Stewponey junction, Stourton, under water on September 26 after heavy rain (Image: Joey Noble)

“There isn’t a drain in the world that would have the capacity to drain away that much rainfall in a short period of time. This is going to be happening more and more but it’s not just Kinver and the Stewponey.”

She said work was carried out more than 12 months ago to improve the drainage around the junction and she added: “The Stewponey is just one of those hotspots.”

Nevertheless, highways chiefs at Staffordshire County Council have pledged to visit the area within the next two weeks as part of the authority’s gully cleaning programme.

Councillor Mark Deaville, cabinet member for strategic highways, said: “Last week we saw some extremely heavy rain and flash flooding across the county, and our highways teams worked round the clock to tackle effects of surface flooding on many of our roads.

“During such persistent and heavy rain, drains and gullies get overwhelmed very quickly and where there is low lying ground this can make the situation worse.

“Our gully emptiers work full time across our entire highway network and an additional £8 million investment in highways repairs in May has meant we’ve been able to fix thousands of defects and clear thousands of gullies ahead of the winter.”

Staffordshire Police said they were called about the flooding at Stourton and vehicles trapped in the water at 7.50pm on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the force said: "It was reported that a number of vehicles were stuck in the water.

"A green Jaguar X-type was found stuck in the middle of the carriageway. Thankfully, no one was trapped inside the vehicle and no injuries were reported. There was significant congestion in the area as a result.

"We informed highways of the incident. The car was later recovered from the scene."