A143 Compeigne Way floods again as rain batters Suffolk

Flooding persists at a key town centre road as rain batters the county.

Motorists are being forced to drive on the opposite carriageway to avoid flooding on the A143 Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds this morning.

The route was only reopened on January 26 after being closed for almost four weeks following Storm Henk.

The closure brought ‘chaos’ to the town while hundreds of thousands of litres of water were removed.

Suffolk News revealed last week that more than £500,000 was spent trying to fix the problem in one year alone.

But despite hundreds of thousands of pounds being spent, and repeated repairs, the problem persists.

It has prompted calls for a long-term solution as the council investigates the source of the water which caused the most recent flooding and disruption.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the scale of works along the stretch of the A143 since 2019.

In 2019, the replacement of a filter drain, new signs, posts and crash barrier works as well as pump repairs and replacement cost £547,998.82.

The latest works involved adding two new pumps on the road to channel water into the River Lark.

A Suffolk County Council spokesperson said at the time: "We are in the process of developing a future maintenance schedule for Compiegne Way to ensure the risk of future flooding is kept to a minimum.”

Labour Cllr Cliff Waterman, who represents the Eastgate ward on West Suffolk Council, said there needed to be a long-term plan for the road as previous efforts were an ‘expensive sticking plaster’, with money literally ‘going down the drain’.

“It’s inevitable there will be further flooding and whatever has been done so far doesn’t resolve the issue,” he said. “It’s in a dip, there’s banks either side and it has drains that block.”

Suffolk County Council has been approached for comment on the latest flooding.