A COURT fined Penny Roberts £30 for non-payment of council tax despite her pleas that she was holding it back until steps were taken to curb flooding near her home.

Coleford magistrates on Friday also ordered Ms Roberts, a former probation officer, top pay her outstanding taxes in full – even after hearing a statement she had prepared on the 24 years she had waited to get the matter fixed.

Ms Roberts, who lives in Strand Lane, Westbury-on-Severn, told the court she was withholding £150 of her £414 tax until work started on the floods, which frequently left her housebound or unable to get home, sometimes for as long as five days.

"I have lived 24 years at my present address and have had problems every winter and even later in the year following heavy rainfall," she told the court.

"I have contacted the council on numerous occasions. I have a letter dated September 15 1994 from Steven McGriffin including the phrase 'the road is generally clear a short time after river levels fall'. I replied that I had never known the tide stay in for five days."

She also told the court of many occasions when the floods made life particularly difficult: once, she only got out for a booked holiday through the help of someone with a tractor, and another time she was stranded at the village hall on the first outing since a hip operation and had to find her way by foot over Westbury Cliff in the dark.

Her protest comes after recent public meetings on the flooding issue, which affects many elderly people living along the lane as well as Ms Roberts.

"I was surprised to hear officials say that they had no idea how bad the situation was, when I had been trying to convince them for 24 years," she said.

Practical alternatives suggested by local fisherman Mike Evans included raising the road by a metre, a sluice trap to prevent ditch water running the wrong way plus a pumping station to clear it, and more sluice gates at the outfall.

And Mr Evans had condemned the latest proposals to merely improve the ditches as equivalent to emptying a bath full of water with a teaspoon.

Ms Roberts is waiting to hear from the court how and when she must pay the fine and outstanding taxes before she decides her next step.