Thames Water, one of the three agencies charged with preventing a repeat of last year's floods, pulled out of Friday's public meeting.

Three days before Redbridge Council, the Environment Agency and Thames Water were due to face the public the utility company wrote to the council saying they would not be able to attend.

In a letter to Dave Renvoize, the chief council officer for engineering and building services, Thames Water said after a recent policy review it had been decided that customers would be better served if meetings took place without them being present.

A spokesman for Thames Water told the Guardian: "The company feels that it will make more progress discussing the issues with councillors and council officers.

"We have attended quite a lot of meetings right across the region. We have found that it's easier to progress issues when we meet just with councillors and council officers."

But cabinet member for the environment and transport and chair of the flooding committee, Lesley Hilton, was extremely disappointed that Thames Water was absent from the meeting.

She said: "I was not impressed by decision. There were a lot of questions that I wanted to put to Thames Water, like how often they clean the sewers which packed up in last October's floods.

"Residents also wanted to speak to them. The whole meeting was arranged in conjunction with Thames Water and I think people can draw their own conclusions as to why they did not come."