BRADFORD Council officers have rubbished claims by a Keighley town councillor that a large stock of sandbags at one of its depots remained unused during last year's Boxing Day floods.

Michael Westerman said he raised the matter at a meeting attended by councillors and Bradford Council officers on January 27.

He claims the sandbags had been on district council land by the sand pile in Denholme since before Christmas.

But a spokesman for Bradford Council has rejected this, stating the sandbags were not delivered to the Denholme site until four days after the floods.

Cllr Westerman, speaking shortly after the latest full monthly meeting of the town council, said: "There are about 18 pallets of sandbags, which have been on this council land at Denholme since before Christmas. They were still there on January 27.

"On Boxing Day, Bradford Council was saying it had run out of sandbags by dinner time.

"But at the meeting, when I mentioned the Denholme sandbags to the senior council officer there, he knew nothing about them.

"I know sandbags wouldn't have been much use in Stockbridge, where water was coming up through the ground into people's cellars. But people on the Red Holt Estate in Ingrow, who had to wait up until 3am for sandbags to be delivered, could have had them delivered a lot sooner if they'd got them from Denholme."

The Bradford Council spokesman said: "The sandbags referred to by Cllr Westerman were not delivered to the Denholme site until December 30, so were not available for use on Boxing Day.

"Sandbags were prioritised and distributed by the emergency services, including the council, to properties in Keighley on Boxing Day."

Cllr Westerman said he feared some residents whose homes were flooded have still not reported it, so are missing out on £500 payments to repair damage and £5,000 resilience payments to improve their homes' capacity to resist future high water hell.

Fellow town councillor, Barbara Archer, also attended the January 27 meeting.

Reporting back on the discussion to the full town council, she said: "Some people don't want to say they were flooded because they think they could lose their insurance.

"A lot of the attention was on Stockbridge but there were people flooded right across the district.

"There are blocked drains, blocked culverts, landslips and other damage – all of which needs to be dealt with. Money is being made available but the distribution seems to be being done on a very ad hoc basis."