The floods that caused devastation in communities across Suffolk were caused by a one in 200-year weather event - and were not caused by blocked drains.

That was the message from Suffolk County Council engineers assessing the work to clear up after Storm Babet and Storm Ciaran.

Storm Babet on October 20 was a one in 100-year event as 75mm of rain fell in part of Suffolk - with similar figures across a large area of the county.

But there had also been very high rainfall on the night of October 18/19 which had left large areas of land saturated. The combination of the two rainfall events made it a one in 200-years event.

There had been concerns that blocked drains and gullies could have made the flooding worse - a claim dismissed by the engineers.

Matt Hullis, head of Environmental Strategy at Suffolk County Council, said this level of rainfall would have made it impossible for any drainage to cope.

He said: "If you turn on a tap in your kitchen and just leave it running, the water will all run away because the pipes are able to cope. But if a firefighter sticks a hose through your window and turns it on the kitchen will flood because it cannot cope - that's what happened last month!"

John Clements, assistant director of highway services at the county, said 110,000 gullies were cleared a year across the county and that continued to be the case - since the storm a further 10,000 had been cleared and the work was continuing.

Mr Hullis said 800 properties had so far registered for help offered by Defra since the storm - and the county was administering these claims.

But the council accepted that the £5,000 grants that are being offered to make flooded properties more resilient in the future might be insufficient.

Changes to planning rules brought in over recent years gave the county council a say on environmental impacts of major developments.

Mr Hullis said the effect of this had been that very few new properties had been affected by flooding - the majority had been built before new regulations came in.