January 2024
TALLINGTON FLOODING UPDATE as at 15th January 2024
The previous peak for the River Welland at Tallington was recorded on December 25th 2020 at 1.76m.
Throughout Wednesday 3rd January the Parish Council asked for help from the Environment Agency in the form of a pump at the Tallington Bridge. Our usual contact at the EA was on holiday and not answering calls and our calls to the National incident hot line were not attended to with any urgency.
At 11.35pm on Wednesday the 3rd January 2024 the river peaked at a height of 2.04m – a new record! By Midnight and shortly after 5 homes were already flooded including Hawthorne Cottage, The Crooked Billet and Tennyson cottage on the junction of the Main Road and Bainton Road with the Greystones and the Old Forge on Main Road flooded by 00.35/1.00am. Tennyson Cottage and Greystones being evacuated by the Fire Brigade. It cannot be a coincidence that this happened so quickly after the peak? The water continued to rise throughout Thursday flooding homes and businesses on the Main Road and Mill Lane.
The deployment of over 1000 sandbags throughout Thursday by a team of volunteers distributing them by 4x4 and trailer as they were delivered from SKDC and LCC enabled some protection but in total 10 homes and 2 businesses were badly flooded that will take many months to dry out and repair.
Main Road Bainton Road Junction - 4 Jan 24
If it were not for the deployment of 4 large pumps by Lincolnshire Fire Brigade in the hours after 5pm on the Thursday more homes would have been affected. We had the support of Fire crews from Gainsborough HVP team (where the very large national asset resource pump came from), Donnington, Market Deeping, Grantham and Bardley crews to name a few. They were fantastic and they were appreciative of the tea, cakes and chocolates given to them throughout their time here. These pumps were only removed from the village by 1pm on Monday 8th January. An EA pump then replacing them and being left in place till Thursday morning 11th January. This pump was not used and was removed to the Spalding depot with an assurance it could quickly be deployed if needed. We are now demanding a more direct contact number for the Flood officer at Spalding rather than having to rely on the ineffective national incident hot line. The sandbags that were put in place in early December by the EA to prevent any flowback from the river to the village from the river were removed by the EA on Tuesday 9th January after a review the night before. No water was seen to flow back from the river despite it still being under water so the flap it appears has been working. The EA expecting it to release water back into the river over time from the village side which it appears to be doing.
We have since shown the EA the devastation caused in the village and the trapped water at the Old Post office and in Mill Lane that hung around for days and discussed the need for protection going forward. It is all too easy to jump to conclusions about what caused the flooding. We believe that it was an amalgamation of a number of issues not least of which was the sheer volume of rainfall in recent weeks with 8 named storms this year already against 2 last year. A months’ worth of January rain in a few days. Water runoff from the fields towards Copthill with potential damage to the banks further upstream? Work was being done to the banks near the bridge shortly before Xmas – did this have any affect? We have relayed all the feedback received to the EA and there will be meetings now between the EA and LCC who are the body responsible for flooding away from the river. We were not alone in being flooded and many other villages in our area have suffered much worse devastation – Greatford only 7 miles to the north of us being the nearest example but there are many more. However, we strongly believe this could have been avoided had the EA responded to our requests.
Mill Lane - 4 Jan 24
We are now pushing for urgent protection for the village with a permanent sump pump at the bridge discharging into the river or if not then onto the unused flood plain on the other side of the river. Many believe this is the best and simplest solution going forward.
Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to be part of a Tallington rapid response flood team. An action plan is being put in place with some urgency. Including the rapid deployment of the sand bags now returned to pallets in the Village Hall car park from where they can be distributed by agricultural fork lifts to where they could be of most benefit if needed again this winter. We have left many sandbags with residents’ keen to have some ready just in case.
The Parish Council has also purchased a pump that can be used to move standing water when needed by the team. There is also a new supply of a 100 empty sandbags and sand delivered by SKDC that residents can fill and use as required in the Village Hall Car Park.
There are lessons to be learnt from this dreadful experience. We have a commitment from Gareth Davies MP (who visited residents affected and appraised the situation first hand on Friday 12th January) and Alicia Kearns MP, County and District Councillors to ensure that the EA, Anglian Water and LCC Highways put in place measures asap to protect and repair broken services to the village! This includes, after years of ignored lobbying on our part repairs to the broken surface water drains on the Main Road that overpowered the sewerage system yet again and caused too many homes to be without toilets for over a week.
Mill Lane - 4 Jan 24
The community spirit shown throughout was truly uplifting and there are so many people to thank – the fire crews, the village sandbagging crew, those manning the road closure signs that too many inconsiderate drivers chose to ignore and the refreshments team. SKDC for delivering sand bags throughout Thursday from the depot as they were filled, likewise LCC. The SKDC clean-up teams and refuse lorry drivers for removing damaged furniture etc in the aftermath and finally the CEO of SKDC Karen Bradford for responding to our plea for help and in lobbying the Fire authorities at Lincoln for assistance in our hour of need.
The 3 skips from SKDC will remain in the village and be emptied for as long as they are needed.
Let’s pray for a sustained period of dry weather.
Stay safe.
Philip. For Tallington Parish Council. 15th January 2024.