NEW Forest District Council is to pump an extra £25,000 into helping to stem the devastating wave of flooding.

Since October last year, the district has witnessed unprecedented scenes of flooding with the worst-hit areas being Fordingbridge, Ringwood and Sopley.

At a recent flood crisis meeting in Sopley, the council's flood supremo John Rainbow stressed the authority, with stretched resources, could only do so much to combat the deluge.

He was defending the council's response to the recent flooding, after villagers accused the authority of leaving residents to fend for themselves.

Now Mr Rainbow is hoping the extra cash injection, which was approved by the policy and resources committee, will boost council efforts to investigate non-main river flooding incidents like the ones witnessed in Sopley and Ripley in December and on New Year's Day.

He said: "I'm hoping the money will be used to employ another person to help us undertake land drainage and non-river flooding investigations. It may be that the money will be used to employ an outside consultancy firm, but ideally, I would like someone working for us."

The council's flood team said it needed the extra funding for non-river flooding incidents as these are not covered by the government which only provides money for emergency arrangements.

In Sopley and Ripley a combination of rain and icy conditions plus blocked land drains caused flooding of a type which can devastate an area within hours.

The council is expected to draw up detailed plans in March on how it will spend the £25,000.