FLOOD & WATER MANAGEMENT
Slowing the flow
Following the severe weather experienced at the end of last year and with winter fast approaching, some councils will be worrying about flood protection. One council which is taking positive action is Ryedale District Council
F
lood management is a hot topic of discussion at the moment,
following the implementation of the Flood and Water Management Act earlier this year.
Whilst the Act aims to provide better, more comprehensive management of flood risk, there has been concern amongst many councils about how exactly they are supposed to fund any flood management work, given the current financial situation.
As testament to the gravity of the situation, the government has recently made funding available so that cash strapped councils can afford to carry thorough risk assessments of their capabilities with regards to flood management.
However, this is not the case in every authority, with many taking steps to mitigate any future damage which their communities would suffer from any future flooding.
Paul Cresswell
There is also work to create wooded dams which will also slow the speed of the water flowing through Pickering.
“The cost of this project is £950,000 and as there isn’t masses around to fund this project, we are putting the bulk of that money in through our £800,000 investment, with the Environment Agency providing the rest.
A good example of this is Ryedale District Council, which has just spent £800,000 on flood protection following the damage caused to the town of Pickering in the 2007 floods.
“Over the last ten years we have suffered from some fairly significant floods, but in 2007 we experienced what is known as a one in ninety three year event, which was absolutely devastating,” says Paul Cresswell, corporate director at Ryedale District Council.
“Over the years big schemes have been put forward but none of them has ever scored high enough to be put forward through national funding. So the council has worked with a local group of people on a project called Slowing the Flow which, as its name suggests, is trying to slow the speed at which water flows through Pickering.
“The project has also involved working with both the Environment Agency and Durham University.”
The Slowing the Flow project Nov/Dec 10
is focused around how the use of land management can better protect communities from the risk of flooding. An example of how good land management is to create physical barriers, such as bunds, to stem the flow of water and also planting trees in flood plains, to again slow the speed at which water is moving.
“The team have come up with an option for two bunds above Pickering, which will reduce the flow to the extent that it gives one in twenty five year protection to the town. Obviously, that wouldn’t have been enough to stop the 2007 event, but it would have stopped damage to damage to about sixty properties in three of the other floods which we have experienced over the last ten years.”
The bunds – which are basically just two raised sections of earth – manipulate the flow of water, so that two mini reservoirs are created just above Pickering. The water is then channeled out through a culvert at a specified rate of fifteen cubic meters per second.
“However, the Agency is also carrying out the work and is covering any overspend so our council has made a capped contribution to the project. As the project has now been given approval by the council, we expect work to begin in April 2011.”
Along with the usual planning and legal issues, the team has had to take a whole host of considerations into account before the work could go ahead.
“There is a railway line adjacent to one of the ‘reservoirs’ and so a lot of work has had to be carried out to ensure that the water won’t interfere with the rail track.”
Given that the council is spending such as sizeable amount of money on the project, the process to have that funding approved has been very thorough.
“For many years now the council has had some money earmarked to fund flood defenses for Pickering, but until now there has not been a scheme which could offer such a good cost benefit. Now that we have a good scheme in place and enough capital to put towards it, we are moving forward.”
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