THE Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has revealed more details about how it plans to tackle frequent flooding at one Merseyrail station.

Hooton station has regularly flooded this year during periods of heavy rainfall leading to disruption along the Ellesmere Port and Chester lines.

The most recent flooding took place during Storm Bert which meant rail replacement buses had to be brought in. The week before similar flooding took place and a drainage pump was also vandalised.

The details of what is being done to tackle the issue were revealed following a question from Eastham councillor Phil Gilchrist to Liverpool City Region Combined Authority transport committee chair Cllr Steve Foulkes, asking what was being done to sort out a station “disrupted all too often by severe flooding.”.

Cllr Gilchrist said he’s been contacted by people who regularly used the train to get to Chester and believes a new housing development in Hooton has made things worse.

He told the LDRS: “This constant problem is really frustrating. We have got to plan for things like this in future and sort out the disruption to people’s daily lives and expectations. I know they are trying to find answers but it’s important to get those answers in place so that things will improve.”

In response at a meeting of all councillors on December 2, Cllr Foulkes said some parts of the rail network were more at risk of flooding, adding: “Certainly the impact of climate change and particularly the heavy rainfall is clear.”

He said a similar issue happened five years ago and solutions were found to tackle the problem including clearing drains and new pumps but things had changed recently which he said “has had a grave effect.” He said these pumps could not deal with “unprecedented” rainfall and the Liverpool City Region was working with Network Rail which owns the line.

Cllr Foulkes questioned whether developments at Hooton really were the source of the problem, arguing it was more complex. He said meetings were happening every two weeks and “a significant number of actions have either already been completed or are imminently to be completed.”

He said this includes site visits, understanding the courses, and working with the Environment Agency, adding: “Basically pumps were put in place as a mitigation. What has been happening is they have been pumping the water away but the land they are pumping it to is sodden so it simply comes back in.”

He said they were looking at “bigger pumps and storage tanks where we may be able to store the water” with “quick to react” rail replacement buses if there were issues.