Floods of July 2007: Tewkesbury
Town Council.
Report concerning Implications for the
Infrastructure, 10 September 2007.
Adapted for submission to the
Scrutiny Enquiry into the Summer Emergency, 2007
A.
Introduction
- The
Working Group has met upon 4 occasions between: 14 August and 5 September.
This report was unanimously accepted by the meeting of Tewkesbury
Town Council on 10 September 2007.
- It
was chaired by Cllr. Vernon Smith
and comprised 5 Town Councillors (1 of whom is a County Councillor),
assisted with specialist evidence from 1 County Councillor, 1 Borough
Councillor and 3 members of the public.
- The
document was approved unanimously by the full Town Council on 10 September
2007.
- The
Council has also made this submission to the Government DEFRA enquiry (EFRA PN60/070726)
- The
Contact
is The Town Clerk, The Town Hall, High Street, Tewkesbury, GL20 5AL;
telephone 01684-294639; email townclerke@tewkesbury0.wanadoo.co.uk
.
- The
Council will send witnesses and be represented at your enquiry by Councillors Vernon Smith (Chair of
the Infrastructure Working Party),
John Dixon (Secretary) and Graham Dawson (Gloucester County
Council)
- Nothing
contained in this document is confidential.
B.
Council Executive Summary
For geographical
reasons, Tewkesbury has always been and will always be susceptible to flooding. Since 1990 witnesses have experienced an
increasing frequency and severity of flooding and the reasons for this must be
understood and mitigated. The people of
Tewkesbury are very vulnerable to decisions made elsewhere with scant regard
for the consequences “down stream”
1 Imperative: that one local agency should
have complete control/scrutiny over all agencies be they governmental (e.g. E.A.) or private (Severn Trent Water)
a.
flood prevention measures: to enforce spending
where required
b.
defining the flood plain: it is clear that the
current E.A. definition is too limited.
c.
over-ruling plans to build on the defined flood
plain and to ensure that developers provide and maintain adequate drainage
systems from the development to the outfall, however, distant that may seem.
2.
Demand a Local Public
Enquiry into the causes of the 2007 Floods and ascertain why the submission by Tewkesbury Town Council Tewkesbury, Development within the Flood
Plain, written and research by Georgina Smith in October 2002 was not
implemented. Re-visited since July
2007, it is arguable that had the evidence been heeded then the disaster of
July 2007 might have been diminished.
3.
Halt all developments and
plans which are currently taking place on or near the flood plain until it is decided that
a flood disaster will not be the consequence.
4. Living
with flooding
It
is argued that there are three
different types of flood, which affect Tewkesbury
1. Flash floods
A. the hard flood – run off from concrete
B. the soft flood – run off from agricultural
land
However
as the hard flood travelled such distances from the Cotswold scarp villages
like the now huge Bishops Cleeve, the hard and soft floods were coinciding in
Tewkesbury. Flash floods in Tewkesbury
then exacerbate the problem.
2. Avon
Flood – 2-3 days later
3. Severn
Flood –
2 to 3 days after the Avon flood, depending on where in the catchment area the
rain had fallen. This is then exacerbated,
especially on 22 July 2007 by a high tide on the Severn
Once
all 3 floods coincide then tributaries like the Swilgate, Tirle and Carrant Brook back up causing even more
flooding and damage.
The aim of many of our
proposals would be
to enhance the passing of
the flash floods
before the impact of the
River flood
5. To
develop a Parish Emergency Plan,
which will be linked to the Emergency Plans of the District and County
Councils?
Summary
of Main Points we are making
C. Phased Recommendations re Infrastructure:
The Group analysed the problems and recommended
solutions under three perspectives: Short
Term (issues of maintenance which have been neglected), Medium (issues which require
extra-ordinary funding but are urgent) and Long
Term (issues which require extra-ordinary funding but which will be of long
term benefit to the Town)
a.
Short Term (issues of maintenance
which have been neglected; these need to
be completed by the season of winter floods 2007-8.)
i. Drains - Roads,
gullies: clearing existing systems. Estimated Cost £99,000
a.
Estimated that Gulley sucker required 30 daysx10
hoursx£80 ph
Jet Flush
50 daysx10hrsx£150ph
b. Knights Way a priority, already in
hand: GCC report now awaited;
c. Ashchurch
Road: should 1 ft (0.3m) diameter pipes be replaced by 1
metre culvert?
d. Wynyards Close
e. GCC have
conceded that there are no maps of
drainage systems so these must be drawn up by Parishes, with the assistance
of Residents Groups.
f. It is claimed
that Morrison’s is protected by 2
culverts and a ditch from the Tirle which
links up with the Carrant Brook;
however the former Safeway had been built upon Wash lands called the Water
Meadows which always used to flood without harm.
g. Alleys:
where does responsibility lie for poor quality paving; lack of drainage from
newer properties and blocked drains?
ii.
Ditches:
a.
systematic
plan for clearing debris and banks; There
has been no increase in the capacity of the Tirlebrook
or the Fidd and that the planning led
to the joining of large culverts to smaller ones; the theory being that the
flash floods would pass quickly; he also provided photographs of the bed of the
Swilgate passing through Rudgeway Farm in 2006 which showed
how silted up is that river in that location.
b. responsibility of
residents of Tirlebank to clear half of Tirlebrook
on each property to be clarified and enforced;
c. Balancing ponds
- are they adequate? Are they
working? Who owns them? Who maintains them? It was felt that they
were now silted up and, in any case, rendered less valuable because at level of
water table.
iii.
Flood Plains:
a.
recommended that Town Council Advice contained in 2002 Flood
Enquiry submissions be implemented
b The culvert under
the A38 which gives the Swilgate
access to the Lower Avon was – and still is – inadequate for the amount of water that
it must pass in times of flood; since 2002 more houses have been occupied in Wheatpieces along with 400 homes in
Bishops Cleeve. It must be stressed
that the Swilgate hosts water from the rivers Tirle and Fidd as well as
smaller brooks and drains the scarp of
the Cotswolds from Dixton Hill to
Cleeve Hill
- The filling in of the Flood Plains:
1.
Severn Trent should re-impose
clearance order concerning materials dumped on the field behind Pike House, so-called Massey’s
Field
2.
Chapel Fields in Walton Cardiff had been in-filled by a local farmer
d. The possible damming effect of new Roads: are the
culverts sufficiently large and are they cleared?
1. The
Eastern Bypass:
2. The
M5
iv. Cycleway on former railway track
which provides a dry route during floods.
Cllr. Dawson (GCC) reported that it is in the funding priority for
2008-9 but that, because of its importance, he hopes that its priority will
increase.
v. Closing
the Cotteswold Road Gap in the
Railway embankment which caused such misery in Station Lane and Cotswold
Gardens.
b. Medium Term (issues which require
extra-ordinary funding but are urgent.)
i.
Coventry Close, Priors Park needs urgent building of a
defence e.g. a bund
ii.
Mill Avon requires
a.
Abbey Mill pond to be dredge from 3ft to
nearer former 32’
b.
Owners
of Abbey Mill be required to clear
water wheel bays to allow passage of water
c.
King John Bridge archways need dredging
and keeping clear of debris
d.
Finger
moorings to be replaced by floating mooring with a winding
point being kept clear to encourage tourist narrow boats to turn right
and moor in Tewkesbury;
e.
Re-establish
LANT control of Town Slipway
by restoring chain on slipway with key issued only to LANT licence holders;
f.
Action
taken to reduce speed which is wearing away the banks
iii.
Prior’s Park Emergency Dry Route:
a.
the
area already was a serious shortage of parking spaces for residents
verges where possible to be replaced by grass
creep parking bays which could be cleared in emergency for use by police etc.
iv.
New estate development;
planning requirements need to be amended so that
a.
developers
must ensure that they pay for improvements to existing communal drainage so
that new homes can be drained effectively without overloading the system; perhaps this is the only moral use for
Section 106 payments? Developers should be required to set up a Trust Fund,
the interest from which would be used for drainage maintenance in the future,
whether or not the developer concerned ceases to trade.
b.
all
new homes to be built with grey water provision
v.
raised decked causeways with Armco piping to be
built at crucial blockage points
a.
Bredon Road between c Handyman centre
and corner of Oldbury Road (Carrant Brook)
What about the need to rebuild the Carrant Brook bridge on Bredon Rd using
railings instead of a solid parapet to prevent damming of flood water which
increases flooding of buildings? (GD)
b.
Ashchurch Rd: Wilding Close to
Oldfield Road (Tirlebrook)
c.
Church Street – but problem of Abbey
Terrace might mean only recourse is to widen stream through Gloucester Road
bridge on the Swilgate
vi. link road between Morrison’s Ghost Road and Station Road with bollards to
restrict traffic except in emergency as only dry route into town. .
(Some councillors would like this |road extended along Station Road to
give access only to the Town Centre Car Park in Spring Gardens. Cllr.
Dawson advised that “it had already
been looked at by GCC and rejected on safety grounds on at least 2 occasions in
the past.”
vii. Canal bypass
Cllr. Pavey provided a rationale for a flood canal to
link the Swilgate just west of its
confluence with Deans Brook and the Coomb
Hill Canal. The distance was
estimated at 2.5 km and way leave would be purchased to construct a vallum for flood water which would be
grassed for pastoral use in normal times.
This would necessitate a really appropriately large culvert under the
A38
The benefit would be that much of the water which funnels
into the Swilgate via Tewkesbury suburbs would enter the Severn giving some
relief to Deerhurst.
The disadvantage would be the threat to the wild life
reserve on the Coomb Hill Canal which suffered to badly in these floods of
2007.
However, all
members of the committee thought the idea merited earnest consideration.
viii. Dredging/clearing of debris from Rivers
Severn and Avon: in commercial days 12 ft was the depth and
in pleasure days 6ft. Is this maintained?
c. Long Term (issues which
require extra-ordinary funding but which will be of long term benefit to the
Town)
i.
M5 Junction 10 to be opened up to both
carriageways and directions.
ii. Relief Roads
a. Northern
Relief Road
i. The Chair explained from professional
and personal experience that the embankment which carried the former railway
acted as a dam which probably protected a lot of the Northern Oldbury from
being flooded
ii. the flooding in Station Lane and
Cotteswold Road was probably caused by flood water penetrating the gap which used to be bridged by the railway: the
gap needs flood defences
iii. therefore, if present ideas were carried
through and the embankment was gradually lowered to meet a roundabout in the
Bredon Road, then even more properties in the Oldbury would have been flooded
iv. Conclusion: from a perspective
of flood prevention then the proposed GCC Northern
Bypass along with former railway would exacerbate flooding in the northern
Oldbury area.
b. Alternative Bypass Plans submitted by Peter Finnigan via
the Chair (plan attached)
i.
Phase 1: This would coincide with raising the level of the Bredon
Roads over Carrant Brook by decking; Bredon Road would be raised on a solid
embankment from the decked section to the White Bear
ii.
Phase 2: The former railway
embankment would be preserved as a noise and flood barrier (with a bund filling
in the crucial gap at the end of Cotteswold Road. The Relief Road would then be built on a new embankment to the
north of the existing one in the Carrant Flood Plain which would gradually be
lowered to meet the raised Bredon Road.
iii. Phase
3: would then be the purchase of land from the Tewkesbury Marina to bridge
the Avon and follow the enlarged railway embankment to a roundabout at the
junction of the A38 and the Ledbury Road.
iv. The
committee concluded that this imaginative plan might be so expensive and
exacerbate the flooding y using the Carrant
Brook floodplain.
c. Alternative relief roads for the traffic
(which would also be dry in times of flooding):
i. a
road linking Shannon Way and the Bredon Road, north of the new
allotments. This would give an
alternative e way of accessing the M5 without travelling through the town
centre.
Detailed Recommendations
with Costings[1]
C. Phased
Recommendations re Infrastructure
I have drafted this
appendix to help clarify the conclusions that we have drawn and also help the
agencies involved with the implementation of our recommendations. I have based
this from a civil engineer's point of view and added costings to the best of my
ability to help those authorities evaluate the works involved.
a. Short-Term
Recommendations
1. Drains: As you can see from our report, one of our first
recommendations is the clearing of the existing drains and gullies within the
Town and immediate area around Tewkesbury. This first cost of £99,000 includes
the one-off extra charge to clear the silted drains and pipes caused by the
flood. This was worked out on the use of a gully
sucker and jet flush operating
plant which, we believe, would take thirty days working on a ten hour day
charging, by local competitive rates, of £80 an hour and fifty days at £150 an
hour for the jet flush operating plant. This price would then come down to a
budget price of £50,000 p.a. to maintain the drains and gullies to a clear and
safe standard. This price is for Gloucestershire
County Council, Highways Department.
2. Ditches: Obviously, clearing of existing ditches and
local streams i.e. Carrant Brook, Tirle Brook, the Swilgate, the Fidd
and other local watercourses need urgent clearance. The group costed this work
to be carried out by a JCB with a one metre cube ditching bucket levelling silt
and debris to the verge side. This would cost, by today's prices, £11 per
linear metre. This, again, would be needed to be built into Gloucestershire County Council's
budget and would require clearing on a three year cycle. I believe these costs
would amount to a further £50,000 p.a.
Clearly, it is the duty of local farmers and some
residents to maintain the ditches. I would suggest that the Government could
allow some tax incentive to farmers,
similarly to the way they are given tax relief for set-aside. This would encourage farmers to clear their ditches
regularly. The obligation of local residents to maintain their own ditches
should be enforced by the one local
agency should have complete control
and scrutinise all other agencies
with power to enforce; an example would be to require private residents to
clear their own ditches.
3. Flood Plain: The flood plain should be kept clear of all
debris, soil or tippings. A typical example in our report is the dumping behind
the Pike
House so called Massey's Field: there has been a
clearance order on this site since 2002, but still nothing has been done. We
the Committee strongly urge Severn-Trent Water Authority
to impose a charging order to clear this debris and also the Chapel
Fields in Walton Cardiff which also has hundreds of tons of soil on
them. We suggest the flood plains only be used for arable purposes and grazing,
leaving the flood plains to nature which would encourage a wild fowl sanctuary
which would bring tourist and trade to Tewkesbury.
4. Cycle way: We strongly urge Gloucestershire County Council
to complete the cycle way adjoining Station Lane, Tewkesbury as soon as
possible as this allowed access to the Town during the flood. Councillor Dawson
(Gloucestershire County Council) reported that this funding was priority to
2008/2009 but, because of its importance, we feel the County Council should
move this forward to their present budget as emergency works. This would
probably cost in the region of £60,000.
5. Railway Embankment Gaps: The old railway line
acted as a dam during the floods of July 2007 and, without this bund
effect, areas of North Oldbury
up to Hollams Road, Old Hospital Road, and Rope Walk up to Chance Street would have flooded too by photographic evidence and
the measuring of the burn effect and scarring to the local vegetation. We urge
this damming effect of the old railway line to be increased by putting flood
defences in the gaps at Cotteswold Road, Old Newtown Lane and
Northway Lane. This would have the effect of protecting these localised
areas. Temporary flood defences erected by Gloucestershire County Council,
which can be re-used in times of expected flood, would cost in the region of
£12,000.
6.
Flood
water exits:
As a matter of urgency the exits of the Swilgate and Carrant Brook into the Avon
needs to be upgraded to increase the flow of water; this would stop the
backing-up effect and flooding caused by these two streams that, in times of
flood, act as rivers. Firstly the Swilgate
at the A38 exit should have the culvert trebled in size to increase
volumes, also the Carrant Brook needs to be widened and canalised also to treble
the flow. These costs to the Environment Agency, we
believe, as a Committee, would cost some £200,000, using today's prices.
b. Medium Term Recommendations
1. Flood Defence Bunds: As I have mentioned
earlier, the old railway line acted as a dam during the flood and this bund
effect could be used in other parts of the Town i.e. Coventry
Close, Priors Park. The building of a bund defence extending 100 metres
either side of the length of Coventry
Close would stop the flooding and the hardship caused to the residents in
that area. This would cost £12,000 building it to a height of 12 ft by 8 ft
wide. These flood defences could be considered for Wynards Close and Howells
Road, but further detail and surveys would need to be carried out
because the effect of damming would cause the water to move elsewhere,
particularly in relation of the last two roads mentioned.
2. Dredging: We strongly recommend
that major dredging is carried out by the Environment Agency in
conjunction with the National Rivers Authority of
the River
Severn and the River Avon. For example, the Mill
Avon is only a depth of three foot
but, in its former times i.e. 1947 when it was still being commercially used,
it had a depth of thirty-two foot. All bridge crossings, in particular, the
archways at King John's Bridge need to be cleared and floating moorings - rather than finger
moorings - need to be enforced to all boats using the river. Again, this could be enforced by one local
agency with the power to fine users for failing to comply. The cost of this we
are unable to price as dredging has been severely neglected over many years by
many government administrations but this has to be changed. The Government needs to study and build in
costs to their budget to complete this work: not just for Tewkesbury, but at a
national level. In commercial days, it was reported the River Avon was 12 ft in depth,
this is clearly not been maintained over a number of years.
3 Emergency dry route roads: As photographic evidence
has shown, Tewkesbury became an island
in the July 2007 floods, which resulted in severe difficulties and stress to
residents. We believe that building an A
class road connection from Morrison’s traffic lights to Station
Street would give access into the Town. This route would also give access to the proposed new doctors'
surgery on the old MAFF site; it would also link up with Station Street long term
car park which would encourage traffic into the Town without have to drive
right through the Town, decreasing exhaust fumes and helping access to tourists
to the Town Centre. This road could also have restrictive bollards at the top of
Station Street which would stop two-way
traffic and alleviate residents' concerns of increased traffic flows. These
bollards could be removed in time of flood by the police; all this would stop
Tewkesbury becoming an island. The cost of these works to Gloucestershire County Council,
using their prices for the full construction of A class roads, would be as
little as £150,000 and we strongly recommend that this be budgeted for in the
near future.
The
second emergency route, which was used during the flood, was the Priors
Park Link Road. This is very narrow and restricted emergency services
to and from the Town. We recommend this road be widened using Grass
Crete concrete so that the verges on Link Road could be used
by police for two way traffic in times of emergency. This would also aid parking
for the residents in non-flood times as this is a major issue to residents
of Priors
Park. Grass-creting would have
the effect of a road, but still maintain the verges to look like grass, the
costs are much reduced in the widening and we would urge Gloucestershire County Council
to budget £250,000 to fulfil this recommendation.
4. New Estate Development: We would recommend S106
payments be used by developers to improve the infrastructure; a typical example
is the Bredon Road development (Water Meadows) where the builders
are proposing to connect to Mitton's existing sewerage system. This
is already at capacity and we believe is storing up serious problems for the
future for the residents of Mitton. The developer needs to build into his
costing an upgrading for new drainage
systems when designing new build estates.
Also developers should be
required to set up a trust fund, the
interest from which would be used for drainage
maintenance in the future, whether or not the developer concerned ceased to
trade. All new homes as a matter of
building law should have provision for grey water.
5 Raised deck causeways: We believe the Bredon
Road between the Handyman Centre
and the corner of Oldbury Road needs
to be built using steel deck causeway.
This would increase the volumes of water from Carrant Brook able to exit to the Avon and also keep the Bredon
Road from flooding and allow access from Mitton to the Town in
times of flood.
We also
recommend the same type of deck causeway for Ashchurch Road between
Wilding Close to Oldfield Road; these two steel decked causeways would cost Gloucestershire County Council
in the region of £600,000, and, again, would increase water volumes in the
flood plain
7. Canal bypass: The Committee looked at
the building of a vallum or canal to divert the flood water coming from the
Cotswold escarpment i.e. the Deans Brook,
flood water from Bishops Cleeve and
the Swilgate, water from Cheltenham -
which all converge in Tewkesbury.
This canal, we propose, would be built from the junction where the Deans Brook meets the Swilgate and then runs to the existing Coombe
Hill Canal, this is an estimated distance of 2.5 kilometres and we
recommend the vallum be kept as grass
pastoral land with an 18 ft depth;
this would cope with the large volumes of water in times of flood. A large culvert would need to be built under the
A38 connecting the two canals. We believe this would also benefit the
village of Deerhurst, which was tragically ruined during the flood. The
gradient levels on the survey map clearly show that the water would flow, all
members of the Committee thought the idea merited earnest consideration and I
believe the costs would be quite small to the Environment Agency
to implement the building of this canal at today's prices: £250,000.
c. Long Term Recommendations
1. The M5 Junction 10: This should be opened up to both
carriageways and in both directions. This would facilitate easier access for
traffic on and off the M5 and increase volumes of relief aid in the time of
floods. Bringing this junction in line with normal on/off usages would cost the
Highways Agency between £0.8
and £1 million.
2. Relief Roads
a. The Eastern bypass: This acted as a dam during the recent floods and we recommend Armco piping culverts to alleviate this
affect. Several should be constructed underneath the road at various distances
with a cost of £25,000 each culvert.
b. Northern Relief Road: As this flood shows - and Gloucestershire
County Council confirmed recently, the proposed Northern Relief Road
should be put on the back burner indefinitely.
Its main problems are that if using the old railway line as a proposed
route this would require the lowering of the embankment to connect with Bredon
Road and the Eastern Relief Road, this would
exacerbate the flooding as previously mentioned. We, therefore, tried to build
in protection of the Northern Relief Road running to the side of the
embankment. The major fault with this would be building a road in the flood
plain; again, this would increase the potential depths of flooding. Also the
costs of building a bridge from the Bredon Road to join with the A38 would be
in the region of £2Om by today's prices, plus the compulsory purchase of
Tewkesbury Marina and private residences along the route again would cost
around £7m-£10m which makes this proposed route excessively expensive. The
budget would spiral up to £40m+ with little gain to the residents during flood
or even during the time of ordinary usage.
c. Alternative Relief Road: The Committee recommends
its final long-term proposal that a link
road from Shannon Way to Bredon Road just north of the new allotments,
be built to a standard A Road construction giving
alternative access to the M5 without travelling through the Town Centre; it
would also give the residents of Mitton another access route to the Town in times of flood. This
would cost, by today's prices, £8m-£10m.