Will the government now find the cash to improve Northamptonshire’s flood defences?
After days of flooding, evacuations, school closures, a tragic river death and a ministerial visit, will the county’s flood defences receive some investment?
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By Sarah Ward
Since Sunday the River Nene and its tributaries have shown what havoc they can cause. After days of heavy rain, with more in the forecast, roads have been submerged, homes invaded by flood water, schools closed, caravan park residents evacuated and during the rains on Monday a woman’s car went into the Nene off Rushmere Road in Northampton and she died. An investigation is being carried out and an inquest will determine what role, if any, the rain and flooding had to play in her tragic death.
Northampton, which has seen much of the flooding, is located at the joining point of the three main upper tributaries of the Nene. The flows of the three rivers combine in Northampton and are controlled just downstream of the town at the Northampton Washlands reservoir. In the centre of the town are flood walls and flood banks.
But with the growing number of incidents it is becoming clearer by the month that the flood system is nearing capacity and in heavy rain the River Nene is becoming harder to control.
The town’s new Labour MPs Lucy Rigby and Mike Reader say they now want action and the police and crime commissioner Danielle Stone told NN Journal she wants more assurance that communities are safe.
Lucy Rigby, who represents Northampton North, said she had requested the ministerial visit, which happened yesterday, with environment secretary Steve Reed making a visit to the Washlands.
She said:
“The recent flooding has again highlighted the ongoing vulnerabilities in our local flood defences and water management systems. Dallington Brook, which has been an issue for years, remains a real concern, and recent events have revealed pressure points, particularly around Billing Brook. Responsibility for managing these watercourses lies with West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) and in my opinion requires urgent attention.
“WNC can’t afford to wait until further serious flooding puts residents at risk.”
The council has been contacted for a response.
Mike Reader says he had a zoom call yesterday with floods minister Emma Hardy to understand how the response has been handled by the various authorities. As a former water engineer he is well versed in flood management systems.
He said:
“Northampton now has two MPs who are going to campaign on this.”
While the new Labour government has been continually voicing fiscal restraint, the environment secretary has suggested that flood defences is an area where there is money available.
Speaking to the Northampton Chronicle and Echo during a visit to the Washlands reservoir in Northampton yesterday, he said:
"In the past, we noticed that funding we’ve had allocated to build better flood defences was sitting in a bank rather than being spent. So I’ve set up a flood resilience task force. Its purpose is to make sure we coordinate better between the centre, where the money is held, and the agencies on the ground to ensure allocated funding is spent to keep people safer from flooding.”
As yet no money has been pledged to Northampton, but after this week’s floods that promise may now come.
Ben Thorley of the Environment Agency told the newspaper two months worth of rain had fallen in two days.
He said:
“We saw very high river levels, we saw high amounts of surface water flooding across the county and the challenge is, the drainage infrastructure is not designed to take that volume of water in such a short period of time. Consequently, properties were flooded, either from surface water flooding or river flooding. What we’re doing is working as multi-agency partners... firstly, in terms of our response to those incidents, but also to look at opportunities to try and reduce the frequency of these incidents in the future. One of the big challenges we have is climate change as we’re seeing warmer summers and wetter winters.”
In 2018, twenty years after the Easter floods, which affected thousands of homes and saw two people die and 150 people hospitalised, the government said ‘great strides’ had been made to protect over 7,000 properties that are at risk of flooding in the area. It said the Environment Agency had invested £12m in flood risk management in Northants over the last two decades, citing the construction of a flood storage reservoir at Weedon and ‘significant improvements’ on the flood defences at Far Cotton and St James.
But local campaigner John Goodall is clear much more work is needed. He hopes the recent events will lead to major improvements in the flood management system.
He said: “The system does not work. What we have is a system that fails. The river levels through the town are too high when you come into the flood season. They should be draining the river levels down. So there is capacity to take it. The problem is the reservoir is not big enough. So they have to choke it back to stop the reservoir filling up.”
He cites an independent review carried out in 2003 after a request by the then former county council, which said the ‘lack of provision of downstream storage to mitigate against increased flows in the Nene is a particular concern.”
The two unitary councils are the two local lead flood authorities which have responsibility for developing a flood risk management strategy. However at the start of this year, the West authority did not have any permanent staff in its team and NN Journal understands that while the department has been recruited to, it is still under capacity, with staff deluged with work, including outstanding section 19 reports - which have to be done after flooding events.
Since Sunday hundreds of incidents have been attended across Northants by the fire service, who led the evacuation of Billing Aquadrome once again. This is the third time the people living on the site have had to vacate their homes. The rules of the site dictate it cannot be a permanent residence, with people required to leave their homes for one month a year, but for many it is their only home, having sold up the bricks and mortar and using the proceeds to live off.
Dozens of people and their animals have been given accommodation at the sports centre in Northampton and will have to wait until it is safe to return to their homes.
Yesterday on X, the town’s former MP Sally Keeble said holiday parks on floodplains should not be permanent homes and that proper regulation of the sector is long overdue.
The county’s fire and rescue teams have worked round the clock since Sunday, attending hundreds of incidents to ensure public safety.
Chief fire officer Nikki Watson said: “
The safety of the public, and our staff, is our top priority. The risk of flooding in the county is identified in our community risk management plan and we plan and test our response to such events both from a single service and multi-agency perspective. Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service continues to work closely with partners who have specific responsibilities in flood management to ensure the public - and our staff - are informed about risks, so that we can respond and the public can protect themselves from any flood incidents. I’m proud and grateful for all the work every firefighter and member of staff has done this week to keep the community safe.”
Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Danielle Stone said:
“Our firefighters and police officers and staff have done fantastic work to keep people safe over the past few days.
“I am concerned to understand the recent flooding incidents and want more assurance that our communities are safe. I am pleased that the new Government has launched a Flooding Task Force to reduce the impact of flooding and improve the resilience of communities, both of which are vitally important.”
Direct consequence of global heating. Record levels of rainfall since 19th century. Two months rain in just two days. Not just UK but across Europe. In contrast the Amazon rain forest is drying up and there are fires raging across Brazil. And the effects of global heating are only just starting. Unless emergency action is taken to reduce global emissions of CO2 (from fossil fuels) it will only get worse - much worse.
MP Sally Kemble should campain for more affordable housing for the 'residents' of Billing Aquadrome. Northamptonshire. In 1944 The previous owners of the park (Mackaness Family) were given permission by the then Northampton Council to place Prefabricated houses for homeless on the closed Quarry site. 80 years on, and several selfish Governments later, the Park is still home for people who may not have other residential accommodation, just a legal address for bill paying etc. As the area does have residential Lodge Parks, it must be posssible to make some changes on the Park, and still allow the very pleasing changes the New Owners have made to the' Fun' areas that are now in situ.