Last winter saw the River Mole take in the highest percentage of rainfall in the south-east, causing devastation and damage for many households.

The Environment Agency gave a presentation to the council last month to explain how the winter flooding of 2013/14 affected the borough, what the causes were and how it compared to previous flooding.

Justine Glynn, from the Environment Agency, said there had been three of the largest flood events on the Thames in Kingston during the years 1894, 1947 and 2014.

Between mid-December 2013 and mid-February 2014, the upper part of the River Mole received almost 80 per cent of its expected annual rainfall - the highest percentage of any catchment in the south-east.

The storms that then hit created about 50mm - 80mm of rainfall for the river.

Between January 2 and February 28, 2014, the Thames Barrier was closed 50 times and 41 of those times was to stop flooding. For Elmbridge, the closure of the barrier was to aid parts of East and West Molesey and Thames Ditton Island.

The council held a training exercise in October to test the readiness of emergency flooding response.

A council spokesman said: "We continue to work closely with the Environment Agency to engage communities which were most affected by the flooding earlier this year, helping them develop their own emergency plans that will assist should flooding occur and discussing how they could protect their homes.

"From a longer term perspective we are working with the Environment Agency and neighbouring boroughs on the River Thames Scheme proposals which are aimed at providing more capacity along this stretch of the river."