s=10A RAINY weekend put Enfield Council officials on flood alert as waters rose to dangerous levels.o

An emergency control room was opened and gully machines rushed to the Montagu Road area in Edmonton after the council received a flood watch notice at around 2pm on Sunday.

Sandbags were prepared and officers remained in attendance as Salmon's Brook reached levels termed "brook full".

No residential properties were flooded and as the rain eased in the evening the water began to subside.

But on Monday council chiefs rubber-stamped a move to avert future flooding by loosening the purse strings to spend £90,000 to hire an industrial pump to transfer water away from the danger area.

The council was due to consider a report into Edmonton's flood problem but has had to rush through contingency plans because water table levels were higher than anticipated.

The flood scare comes exactly a year after 200 homes in Montagu Road were evacuated after the same brook burst its banks.

Council environment director John Pryor said: "Quite clearly that brook is running higher than one would expect. It's coming up very quickly and going down very quickly.

"The concern was that it was running brook full, it was running fast and it was running high."

Mr Pryor denied that the council had been dragging its feet since last year's flooding.

"I do not think that we have wasted time. What is happening is climate change," he said.

Cabinet member Cllr Andrew Stafford, who attended the scene on Sunday, added: "As soon as we realised the water table had not fallen, we decided to go with the pump."

The council will take delivery of the pump worth £500,000 by next Wednesday.

As the Independent went to press, more than 50 flood watches were in force in the Thames region but on Monday afternoon the Environment Agency withdrew the flood watch in Edmonton.

The council has had officers in place since Sunday monitoring Salmon's Brook.

Further showers and heavy rain are predicted for today (Wednesday).

Call the Floodline on 0845 9881188.