I read with interest the letter from MEP Sir Graham Watson (Letters, March 14).

As the Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member responsible for flooding I would like to assure your readers that Wiltshire Council has been doing precisely what the MEP suggests and funding a long term water management strategy since the creation of the council in 2009.

Our experience in Wiltshire is that it has been considerably easier to manage flooding issues as a unitary council, as opposed to five separate local authorities trying to deal with different aspects of water management, where the former district councils were responsible for land drainage and the county council managed highways drainage.

In Wiltshire we have been working since 2009 with water management partners through two Operational Flood Working Groups and we have invested hundreds of thousands of pounds each year in small water management schemes that have succeeded in minimising and preventing whole communities from being subjected to flooding.

That does not mean there is still not a great deal of work to be done. Wiltshire suffered more than 400 flooded dwellings, compared to 186 in Somerset, in the recent floods. What has been acknowledged as a success in Wiltshire is the “can do” approach of Wiltshire Council in committing resources to the flood problems and working closely with local communities to address the severity and provide support as a result of the flood damage.

The success of Wiltshire’s “resilient communities” approach manifested itself in how it coped with almost 10 weeks of non-stop flooding that affected the county’s roads and residences and how communities worked with the emergency response teams to combat the impact of the floods.

Over the recent prolonged period of flooding many different departments of Wiltshire Council worked alongside partners and worked closely with Wiltshire’s towns and parishes and their communities to provide essential support and assistance.

The people of Wiltshire simply got on with life as best they could and with the minimum of fuss. That is the Wiltshire way and one which I am proud to be a part of.

Councillor Jonathon Seed, Cabinet Member for Floods, Wiltshire Council.