MEMBERS of Yalding Parish Council are to make an official complaint over television and national newspaper coverage of last week's floods.

Some residents have already written letters to protest at what they feel was an alarmist portrayal of relatively minor flooding.

Parish council chairwoman Geraldine Brown said: "What everybody is complaining about is the exaggeration of the event. It was really a non-event and we all knew it would be. But if anyone living here had relied on what was on the TV they would have been frantically moving all of their belongings upstairs."

She said the parish council was "reviewing its options" over how best to act upon its grievances, but something would definitely be done.

Several residents have written to Ann Widdecombe, MP for Maidstone and the Weald, who agrees that some of the television coverage was misleading.

She said: "When I called Geraldine Brown, the situation she described was far less severe than that which had been portrayed on the television. I was just about getting ready to go and visit in person.

"But, having said all that, the fact remains that Yalding didn't get a penny piece from the government last time they were allocating money for flood defenses - householders are bound to feel uncertain until something is done."