An urgent review has been ordered after council chiefs were accused of spending Government money meant for building flood defences on staff wages.

Tewkesbury Borough Council is to hold a public review after being accused by a pressure group of illegally spending the cash on staff pay packets.

The Severn and Avon Valley Combined Flood Group, which represents 10 residents' associations in the Tewkesbury area, claims the authority acted unlawfully by spending a huge chunk of council tax cash meant for clearing and maintaining watercourses on drainage staff wages.

The council has admitted using the money for the wages but says it has not yet been established whether it was spending the money illegally.

But members of the council's overview and scrutiny committee were so concerned they plan to hold a review, in public, in the next four to eight weeks.

Members of the Severn and Avon Valley Combined Flood Group say the council's flood prevention measures have been pathetic and believe the council is not spending enough money on improving drainage in a bid to prevent a repeat of the disastrous 2007 floods.

Stuart Strathearn, the group's chairman, said: "This, in our view, is not what the money should be used for. We believe the Act is clear that it is for the clearing and maintenance of waterways, not staff wages.

"It's obvious to everyone living in the borough there has been little or no maintenance of the watercourses and ditches for many decades.

Has been little or no maintenance

"Now we learn the money for this work is being spent on staff wages. We think this is being spent illegally."

Mr Strathearn added: "We see grand schemes going on all over the country. The efforts in Tewkesbury are, frankly, pathetic."

Councillor Noel Greaves said it had not been established whether the council was spending the money illegally.

He added: "The issue over the spending of the money is one of the things that the committee will be looking at very closely. If it is found to be the case, that it is being spent illegally, it will be rooted out and stopped."

The 1991 Land Drainage Act allows councils to raise funds for clearing and maintaining water courses. Through the council tax this year, the council is collecting £88,280 for land drainage. The group believes the Act says the money should be spent purely on drainage works.

It was outraged to be told by the council that £61,100, or 70 per cent, of it was being spent on its drainage staff wages.

Much of the remaining money covers the running costs of pumping stations at Deerhurst and Tirley and the cost of responding to flooding by providing sandbags and paying staff overtime.

The 2007 floods, which claimed three lives in Tewkesbury, prompted a huge campaign to improve flood defences in the town. Hundreds of people dressed in blue marched through the town on the anniversary of the disaster to create a symbolic blue wave to appeal for more to be done.

Another protest, organised by the Severn and Avon Valley Combined Flood Group, was held in September.

WHAT WE SAY: Taxpayers do not want to hear money's being wasted