A CRICKET club chairman has called for a residential drain to be fixed after his ground was flooded following last weekend's downpour.

The grounds at Lowerhouse Cricket Club in Burnley were again flooded after heavy rainfall fell across East Lancashire on Saturday and Sunday.

In the last 24 months the cricket ground has fallen victim to flooding on several occasions, the worst of which took place in June 2016 when 13 homes on Lowerhouse Lane were deluged by rain and the cricket club was left under three feet of water.

Stan Heaton, the chairman of Lowerhouse Cricket Club, has called on Lancashire County Council to fix the blocked drain, which he says is putting residents homes at risk of flooding again.

The 59-year-old, who has been chairman for 10 years, said: "It has been an ongoing issue for 10 years and it has got progressively worse.

"For the last four years the county council have been aware that they need to have that drain repaired.

"They recognise that work needs doing and despite the obvious threat to houses and the massive inconvenience to us nothing is getting done about it.

"Really it is absolutely disgraceful that they would put at risk the neighbouring properties from flooding for the sake of moving a few bricks out of a drain."

The chairman, who has been associated with the club since the 1960s, has also said that if the downpour returns next weekend the Worsley Cup final between Lowerhouse and neighbours Burnley could be put in 'jeopardy' because of the drain issue.

The county council, who confirmed there is a drainage problem, says it has designed a solution to prevent the reoccurance of flooding.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "Following the surface water flooding in this area in June 2016 we have worked with United Utilities who have carried out a number of improvements to drainage systems to reduce the likelihood of these issues reoccurring in future.

"There is a further issue still to be resolved which is caused by the privately-owned surface water drainage system belonging to the cricket club discharging into the highway drainage system, which doesn't have the capacity to cope with so much water during heavy or prolonged rainfall.

"We have designed a solution to reduce this issue, which will require minor work within and next to a highway manhole.

"This work is in the final stages, and we have arranged a meeting with United Utilities to discuss when it can be programmed."