The council spent almost half a million pounds on flood defences over the last five years.

More than half of this was spent last year, according to the council’s reply to a freedom of information request.

Councillor Norman Jorgensen, the executive member for environment, sports, environmental health, leisure and libraries, said: “Wokingham Borough Council is a Lead Local Flood Authority and so has responsibility for managing the response to surface water flooding.

“£446,000 was spent on schemes to reduce the risk of surface water flooding across the borough.

“We’ve been upgrading the existing highways drainage systems and adding in new ones in locations such as Emmbrook Road, Church Lane Shinfield, Mole Road, and Eastheath Gardens.

“These new systems reduce the risk of flooding on highways by ensuring an efficient method of carrying water to the nearest watercourse.”

The costs also include spending on property protection schemes, which is funded by grants from the Environment Agency.

A number of areas in Wokingham borough were hit by devastating floods in the latter part of 2013 and the start of 2014.

These came as a result of prolonged, persistent and heavy rainfall.

The council reviewed its flooding protocol and response strategy in the months following the winter of 2013/2014, asking affected residents, parish and town councillors and flood wardens for their views on how the flooding was managed.

A report produced for the council in 2014 read: “Lessons have been learnt and Wokingham Borough Council is committed to ensuring work that communities are better able to mitigate and cope with future flood events.”

The report called for a number of borough-wide measures that would help to prevent future flooding, including more regular maintenance of drainage systems, as well as gathering more information on the condition of features and structures which help prevent flooding.

These recommendations resulted in the council producing their ‘local flood risk management strategy’ in April 2015.

Angus Ross, who was the executive member for environment in 2015, wrote in the strategy report: “The winter of 2013/14 is still fresh in many minds and there will be few people in the borough who were not affected in some way by the extreme weather that we experienced.

“Flooding has a detrimental effect on businesses and our lives.

“Though relatively few homes were flooded in our borough, there were significant effects due to roads flooding and causing issues for getting about, especially across the River Loddon.

“On a positive note, some of the actions taken since the 2007 event stood the test of the recent one, encouraging us now to work even harder to reduce the risk of flooding.”