VILLAGERS in Westbury-on-Severn's Strand Lane are keeping an anxious watch on a combination of tides and weather which could maroon them for days.
With big tides set to sweep up the Severn on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and forecasts of heavy rain, the many elderly residents in particular fear a repeat of October's floods.
With sluice gates shut by high water, swollen brooks and ditches funnel water into the lane where its stays, almost head high, without draining away.
"I found myself marooned by the Parish Hall trying to get home – I was recovering from a hip operation and it was the first time I had been well enough to go out, to the theatre in Cheltenham," said former probation officer Penny Roberts, who lives on the river front beyond the flooded stretch.
Her only way home was a treacherous path over Moys Hill and Garden Cliff.
"The problem is getting worse but it has been bad for the past 20 years. In the last flood I was trapped for five days," she said. Concerned by the plight of those around her she has written to the county council and the district council demanding action.
Westbury Parish Council also has fears for the lane-dwellers, and after walking the area to assess the problem is calling for representatives of the county and district councils and the Environment Agency to meet them in Westbury on March 30 at 2pm to view the problem themselves.
Parish council chairman Anna Tempest and councillor Martyn Gardner said it was important to hammer out who bore responsibility for the poorly maintained ditches which were part of the cause.
Pumping and improvements to culverts were other possible cures for the flooding, which also sometimes blocked Rodley Road at its junction with Strand Lane.