Councillors have agreed to spend up to £50,000 after a community hall floor was badly damaged during flooding earlier this year.

On Tuesday Epsom Council’s strategy and resources committee approved works to prevent a recurrence and improve the decor at Bourne Hall in Ewell.

Ballroom dancers and other local groups are eagerly waiting the replacement of the dangerous and warped wooden floor which has now been removed.

Classes and events have been relocated within Bourne Hall in Spring Street after its main hall was closed off in February.

Flooding, fed by springs, first appeared in January and lasted for two and a half months outside Bourne Hall Park in Ewell Village.

An Epsom Council spokesman said: "The floor of the main hall at Bourne Hall was damaged in the recent rise in the water table. The hall is below ground level.

"The floor is insured and the insurance will pay for a ‘like for like’ replacement."

Councillor Clive Woodbridge said: "The water rising was a fact of nature. To my knowledge, that’s not happened before in the 40 years that Bourne Hall has been there.

"Unfortunately it did cause the floor to buckle and obviously we cannot allow people to dance and do other things on it when it is uneven."

David Cabot, who runs Glitters Ballroom Dancing, said they have been relocated from the main hall to a less suitable room in Bourne Hall.

Mr Cabot said: "People don’t like the upstairs room so attendance has dropped. I have had to cut the number of dates so it has had an impact.

"None of the clients are very happy, me included, but what can you do? It was not done purposefully. You have to grin and bear it."