THE owner of a Fordingbridge pub is concerned after the council said they would not be supplying flood defences like they did in 2014.

Caroline Roylance owns The George on Bridge Street which was “designed for flooding” by the New Forest District Council.

Mrs Roylance said: “Our flood defence was supplied by the council. They dropped sandbags to the park. They are no longer doing that.

“We are designed to be the flood wall of the town. Part of our building was designed for flooding by the council and we couldn’t afford to lose that part of the building.

“The water has come up as high as it can. We still have a couple of days of water from the rain to come from up the stream. It has come up as high as it can.”

Staff at the pub have had to build their own flood defences, including putting up wooden panels on the wall to stop the water getting in.

Mrs Roylance pays £25,000 a year for business rates and she said she isn’t sure what on as she has to pay extra for bin collections and claims there is no option for recycling.

Colin Read, executive head of operations at NFDC, said: "The flood defence works, which does include part of the structure of the George Pub, and was funded by the Environment Agency through a central government grant. Therefore if there are any concerns about the suitability of the flood defence the pub owners should contact the Environment Agency directly.

"NFDC is not the flood authority - this is the County Council. But under its emergency planning responsibility the district council does have a stock of sandbags that it will use in emergencies.

"The Council does not though supply sandbags for residential properties or businesses as a precaution just because they could be at risk of flooding, the owners of these properties who know that their individual properties are at risk of flooding must make the necessary arrangements.

"The Council has a duty to either provide directly or through third parties the collection of trade waste from businesses. This within the environmental protection act is a chargeable service. All local authorities do this. We also do provide a recycling service to businesses which again is chargeable, we have over 1000 business within the New Forest that we provide this service for."