April 2024
TALLINGTON FLOODING & DRAINAGE UPDATE as at Tuesday 23rd April 2024
I eventually received a call back from Anglian Water ‘s Area manager Katie Glynn today Tuesday 23rd April. She apologised for not responding to my messages and calls but she had been on holiday the past 2 weeks. The message of Friday the 19th April via LCC stating that Anglian Water believed the blockages had all been cleared was as I suspected incorrect! Apparently, this misinformation emanated from Matt Moore, AW Flood Partnership Manager; he who was unaware of any toilet blockages in Tallington when questioned at the LCC flood resilience meeting back on the 19th February! Perhaps he believes the NR press office who continue to advise the media that they successfully completed the works at the crossing?
Katie as the AW officer in charge of the Tallington works confirmed that the blockages under the rail crossing have NOT been fully cleared yet. Little has changed since my last conversation with Katie on 27th March. Network Rail and Anglian Water have still only cleared 11 metres of culvert under the crossing from the collapsed catch pit lid they discovered during the 16th March closure and that NR replaced with a steel plate before they hit 80% silt and debris. I am told that there is potentially still up to 20/30 metres of culvert to clear. AW still need to agree with NR when they can access the culvert as a crossing closure will be required.
There has been no further surface water drain clearance work in village as yet. AW need to discuss with LCC what next including the internal Drainage board work to the dykes to the east of the village toward West Deeping. Katie clearly understands the need to sort out and clear the surface water culvert from the Old post office chamber collapse to the rail crossing. Basically, this is the work that was never completed in March 2022 and that has no doubt deteriorated further since.
Reference the Mill lane Pump and pipework removed so far since Friday 19th April. This was a late change of plan decided on whilst Katie was away. The decision being made following complaints from some residents over access and vehicle damage in Mill Lane. It was felt safe, following improvements in the weather to remove the pumps as they are currently not being used. Katie accepted that should a solution and/or the drains not be cleared over the summer months that the pumps could be reinstated. Whilst the pump at the Old Post office is still there as of this update, most of the pipes have been removed and we should expect its removal also. These pumps have been costing Anglian Water and LCC circa £6k per week.
The Environment Agency commenced the removal of the large pump from the river bridge on Monday 22nd April. If we need it again urgently, we now have better line of communication than in January not reliant on one contact or the National Emergency helpline.
We also now have our own large ‘Heron Trust’ 1600 litres a minute pump that lives close to the bridge that we can deploy quickly if and when needed.
Richard Fenwick, LCC Head of Highways Asset and local management services is arranging an onsite meeting with Anglian water to discuss the further repair and upgrade works that LCC and the Parish Council believe are still required to the surface water and foul drains throughout Tallington.
The Parish Council have received assurances from LCC that they will continue to support the village in ensuring an acceptable long-term solution is found.
Philip, Tallington Parish Council. 23rd April 2024.
TALLINGTON FLOODING & DRAINAGE UPDATE as at Tuesday 15th April 2024
During the rail crossing closure of Saturday 16th March to clear the blockage /collapse Network Rail engineers discovered that it was not a drain collapse as such but a catch pit where a wooden lid had fallen into the drain creating a blockage that continued to back up and worsen. A steel plate has now been fitted but more work is required on the culvert as NR have only managed to clear approx. 11 metres of culvert under tracks before hitting another blockage and a raised culvert that is I am told 80% blocked, potentially for up to 30 metres plus. However, this doesn’t explain the large Victorian bricks discovered 2 weeks earlier at the bottom of the double chamber outside of the Whistle stop pub. This did not stop the NR press office responding to media enquiries that they had successfully completed the works?
Mill Lane Pump - 14 Mar 24
The Anglian Water Area Manager Katie Glynn is now charged with scheduling further clearance works with Network Rail. I am advised that the remaining blockages under the tracks will be tackled first and then work back from crossing toward the Old Post office where the second pump will remain in situ till all blockages cleared. As previously stated, this pump and the Mill Lane pump will offer ongoing protection until a fix is provided. LCC are arranging a multi-agency meeting to coordinate the works. AW have already set up a specific group to plan the Tallington and surrounding catchment area works.
Old Post Office Pump - 12 Mar 24
The actual list of properties in Tallington that experienced internal flooding on the 3rd, 4th January 2024 at present number 25 in total. 9 of these properties were affected by flood water again on Thursday 22nd February 2024 by rising water through the ground and drains, both surface and foul. In particular Mill Lane has been shown historically as one of 4 or more high risk flooding points from surface water on the EA maps and identified as such in the July 2018 Anglian Water presentation. The 2 recent flooding events of Wednesday 3rd January and Thursday 22nd February have only confirmed it to be so.
It is my belief that many of these homes would not have flooded had the surface water drains and dykes designed to remove water from the village not been historically blocked, or had been attended to fully by Anglian Water and LCC in the joint maintenance scheme 'attempted' but not completed during the works of March 2022. The failure rendering them incapable of fulfilling their intended purpose. This historic failure plus the surface water drain blockage under the rail crossing and the now apparent planning failures of the Environment Agency prior to the 3rd January resulted in, if you will excuse the pun, the perfect storm, creating what has become a Tallington basin. It should be noted that the river was not a direct threat on Thursday 22nd February 2024. The village of Tallington has never had a history of flooding until 2024 and it does not appear on the EA flood risk map. Many of us are already seeing the effect on household insurance renewal premiums. There is some work being done by the Parish Council with the expert help of Tallington resident Graham Jackson to challenge the increases and further information on this will be forthcoming. Alicia Kearns MP has also offered to lobby the insurance companies on our behalf.
The eventual confirmed failure of an Anglian Water asset meant that AW had to at last provide tankers at the pumping station at Searson Close. These continue, albeit at less frequent intervals at date of this report. It is ‘rumoured’ now that there are indeed issues at the pumping station and that at least 2 incursions of surface water drain bleeding into the sewer have been found.
Indeed, most of the problems along with the need to upgrade 482 metres of grade 5 surface water sewer in Tallington were outlined in Anglian Water's detailed presentation to the Parish Council of July 2018 that I repeatedly refer to. This has been exacerbated by the blockages under the East Coast Main Line crossing that together with the poorly maintained dykes from Casewick Lane beyond and to the north of the village have resulted in the rising water being unable to exit the village as it has in the past.
Tallington was selected as a pilot site for a section 19 consultants visit that took place on the 9th and 10th April. Despite the Parish Council’s best endeavours to assist the consultants they decided for reasons best known to themselves to visit the 19 correctly reported incidents of flooding on an ad hoc basis with no prior appointment? In so doing not many of the 19 residents were actual home. It will be interesting to see what the LCC section 19 investigation report concludes over the role the blockage and the poor state of the surface water drains throughout the village had on the two flooding incidents? I believe it was pivotal to the extent of the damage and number of homes affected. Notwithstanding of course the failures of the Environment Agency preceding the 3rd January 2024.
More up to date information is posted on the Parish Council’s website including the village Flood Plan and details of the record rainfall levels for December to March for PE9 that have kept the ground saturated and water table high. I will continue to provide an update summary each month, correct as at the middle of the month preceding publication of T&S.
Stay Safe. Philip. Tallington Parish Council as at 15th April 2024.