Memorandum submitted by Chaceley Parish
Council (FL 36)
Twenty homes in the heart of this small village
on the western bank of the River Severn floodplain opposite Tewkesbury
have been devastated by recent flooding.
It was the fourth flood that this village has
suffered in six months.
However, 20 July 2007 brought exceptional conditions.
Two houses that have never flooded, and would not have flooded
from river water, were severely flooded from flash flooding from
high ground.
INTERNAL DRAINAGE
BOARDS
Exceptional quantities of "foreign water"
pass through this village en route to the River Severn. The village
main drains and ditches have suffered from neglect fostered by
the self interests of those serving North Gloucestershire Internal
Drainage Board which carried out no work in the village in 10
years. Happily, after a long campaign, the village now comes under
the Lower Severn Internal Drainage Board which recognises the
neglect that critical ditches have suffered and is committed to
working through them. However, given the exceptional circumstances
prevailing in this village the work is taking far too long and
the Board is hamstrung by conditions laid down by English Nature
which requires the protection of nesting birds with the consequence
that a huge chunk of the summer is lost to drainage works. This
must change. In addition, they are not allowed to instruct contractors
to immediately burn debris—it is frequently left beside
the ditch to be washed into it by the next flood so that the ditch
gets blocked again.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Our residents recognise that this village cannot
be protected from flooding when the river overtops. However, around
13 years ago the Environment Agency replaced the Chaceley Stock—the
main water outlet to the river—with a new design. Where
previously there were two doors so that the upper one opened as
soon as the river level fell. Now there is only one and the greater
pressure of river water against the pressure of inland water serves
to retain water in the village long after everywhere else has
forgotten flooding happened. The LSIDB agrees that this is the
case. The Environment Agency should correct this situation. It
is intolerable that a body that is supposed to prevent flooding
is sustaining it. Equally, the Environment Agency has not maintained
the riverside outlet of the Stock for three years citing Health
and Safety regulations. Since the flooding the barriers to this
outlet are missing—this is a huge safety risk.
The current Floodline information provided by
the Environment Agency is useless to homeowners who are about
to flood. They need to know the predicted water level height above
OD. Neither should people trying to protect their homes be forced
to speak to call centres in Northern Ireland and elsewhere that
ultimately have to refer the enquiry to the local office. These
people need urgent, relevant information.
INFORMATION
Throughout the flood it was impossible to get
reliable information of any sort (the village was cut off)—what
time was water being cut off? How do we get water supplies? Which
roads were closed? What time was high water? All the various bodies
that had the information were snowed under. There should be a
central control point disseminating this information (Borough
Council through its website?) to parish clerks, neighbourhood
watch co-ordinators, village agents and the like who can maintain
contact with the community.
DEFRA
DEFRA has been actively promoting the enhancement
of wetlands in the floodplain. The IDBs are against it, local
communities are against it. It is time humans mattered.
PLANNING
Joined up Government. Homeowners are not allowed
to import material into the floodplain to protect their homes
and yet a major landfill site was allowed to be developed in Gloucester
serving to flood the city and bottleneck water up river—why?
Development continues in the floodplain, why? What happened to
the River Severn Flood Defence strategy? Doubtless millions were
spent on it but no one seems to know whether it ever reported.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Finally, local authorities should be more aware
of their communities that flood. They are very quick to cancel
services during floods but not to provide essential ones—road
cleaning, and general maintenance works—post a flood. Rural
communities pay rates too and they should be entitled to expect
and to receive priority services post a disaster such as this.
In short:
— Areas at particular risk from flash
or river flooding to be given priority by those responsible for
drainage
— IDBs to improve ditches to reduce
risk from flash flooding
— IDBs to be given powers to carry
out their maintenance works the year round
— IDBs to be allowed to insist contractors
burn or remove debris from site immediately
— IDBs to exercise their powers to
insist riparian owners clear their ditches
— Environment Agency to ensure that
its works do not enhance flooding!
— Environment Agency to be required
to carry out its obligations on maintenance
— Environment Agency to have strong
powers to prevent development in the floodplain
— Meaningful information from local
sources to be provided by the Environment Agency
— A central emergency control disseminating
information quickly and reliably would take pressure off people
trying to deal with the situation.
— DEFRA to stop promoting schemes to
improve wetlands in the flood plain—the IDB is opposed to
these initiatives
— Local Authorities to be prevented
from allowing development in the floodplain.
— Local Authorities to provide timely
services post flooding
Chaceley Parish Council
August 2007
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