TALLINGTON FLOODING Report for FPS Environmental Investigators
TALLINGTON FLOODING Report for FPS Environmental Investigators. (REDACTED in parts on Website For Owners Privacy).
from the Chairman Tallington Parish Council – Cllr Philip Sagar
As at 5th April 2024
The actual list of properties in Tallington that experienced internal flooding on the 3rd, 4th January 2024 at present number 25 in total however 15 (marked below*) were, as of 20th March 2024 not on your Section 19 List due to a number of reasons I outlined to the Flood resilience team at LCC. Not least of which was the unknown 1st March cut-off date. It should also be remembered that a lot of residents were initially reluctant to report their flooding due to concerns over insurance premiums and the fear of it affecting the value of their primary asset - their home. Also, many have only recently discovered that the water that hit their homes has in fact created damage with lifting floor tiles etc. I suspect that that this isn’t unique to Tallington and that the numbers of homes affected throughout the county is in fact greater than the numbers currently recorded. I have continually through my updates to the community encouraged residents to register with LCC their flood damage and for the grants that were available. Even as I write this report there is one resident at least (Andy Noble of the Old Forge, Main Road) who is still unable to register his extensive damage as the link keeps crashing on him?
9 of these properties (marked ^) were flooded again on 22nd February 24 through rising water through the ground, drains both surface and foul. This is very relevant I believe as you will see in this report that it is my assertion that many of them would not have flooded had the surface water drains and dykes designed to remove water from the village not been historically blocked creating a Tallington basin. Add to this the surface water drain blockage under the East Coast Main Line rail crossing at Tallington and the apparent failures of the Environment Agency prior to the 3rd January and you have, if you will excuse the pun all the conditions for the perfect storm! It should be noted that the river was not a direct threat on 22nd February 2024. The village of Tallington has never had a history of flooding until 2024. It does not appear on any flood risk map.
The 25 properties are by road name -
Church Lane. PE9 4RU – 12 Properties - redacted
Main Road. PE9 4RP – 6 Properties- redacted
Main Road .PE9 4RP Business Premises – 2 Businesses redacted
Mill Lane. PE9 4RR – 2 Properties - redacted
Mill Lane. PE9 4RR Business – 1 Business Outbuildings.
Searson Close. PE9 4RF – 2 Properties - redacted
Near Miss - Known so far. Excluding the many homes with flooded drives and or gardens.
Main Road. PE9 4RP – 1 Property - redacted
Prior to the 3rd January 2024 the previous peak for the River Welland at Tallington was recorded at 1.76m on December 25th 2020. Following that in February 2021 the AW sewerage pumping station at Searson close had a pump failure and a large pump was placed at the bridge to remove the build up of surface water throughout the village back to the river.
At 11.35pm on Wednesday the 3rd January 2024 the river peaked at a height of 2.04m – a new record! That was the information on the Environment Agency’s own website although the data now shows it as being the early hours of 4th January? By Midnight and shortly after 5 homes were already flooded including XXXXXXXXX Cottage, The XXXXXX XXXXXX, XX, XX Bainton Road and XXXXXXX cottage on the junction of the Main Road and Bainton Road with the XXXXXXXXXX and the XXX XXXXX on Main Road flooded by 00.35/1.00am. XXXXXXXX Cottage and XXXXXXXXXX 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 water being unable, as we now know to leave the village. There has been mention of the surge in water being as a result of a sluice gate being opened at Huds Mill, Stamford upstream of Tallington bridge just prior to Midnight on the 3rd January but I have no direct confirmation of that as yet?
With the river rising throughout Wednesday 3rd January and Greatford already underwater 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. We later discovered an EA employee had visited the village and decided the risk was low.
The deployment of over 1000 sandbags throughout Thursday by my team of volunteers distributing them by my sons 4x4 and trailer as they were delivered from SKDC and LCC enabled some protection but it was a losing battle.
If it were not for the deployment of 4 large pumps by Lincolnshire Fire Brigade in the hours after 5pm on the Thursday 4th January more homes I believe 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. 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. It is as I write currently back at the Bridge on standby.
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 the flap still being under water so the flap at that time appeared to be working. However, on 20th February the Environment Agency team replaced the sandbags to block up the river flap again due to the discovery of fish (Minnows) in the dyke on the 10th February that clearly indicated that the river flap had most likely failed again despite initially appearing to hold when debagged on 9th January. Approx. 45 sandbags have been located to create a double skin barrier on the village side and this appears to be reducing substantially any back flow from the river. We have agreed with the EA Ops Manager Field Teams that this is only a temporary measure. It is suggested that a bung or better still a gate that can be closed when required is fitted. The Parish Council are pursuing this with the Environment Agency.
No one can remember such an event in living memory and the devastation it caused. Also, the trapped water at the XXX XXXX office and in Mill Lane that hung around for days.
It is all too easy to jump to conclusions about what caused the flooding. I believe that it was an amalgamation of a number of issues not least of which was the sheer volume of rainfall in December and January with 8 named storms by January 3rd already against 2 last year. A months’ worth of January rain in a few days. Water runoff from the fields towards Copt hill 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? I am attaching to this report some interesting analysis of the rainfall and river levels carried out by Graham Jackson of Hawthorn Row near the bridge, Graham’s background is in Insurance.
On Thursday 8th February myself and John Smith (Vice Chair) met with Ben Thornely, Area Flood and Coastal Risk Manager Environment Agency and Henry Hammond Operations Manager who manages the field team, that undertake maintenance work and respond to incidents to discuss the January Flooding and where we felt the EA had failed us. We believe that stripping back the top layers of the bank at the bridge for more badger defensive works before Xmas (something we raised concerns about at the time) was ill advised as in so doing it left the bank (made up in large parts of gravel from its build in the early 1950’s) exposed to seepage of the rising river level experienced at the time. The record amounts of rainfall over such a short period of time exposed a number of weaknesses in the management of high levels of rainfall, the rising river level and the maintenance of the drainage assets. We believe protection for the village is through 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. Anglian Water representatives have expressed a similar view and it was mentioned as an option in the 2018 presentation by Anglian Water to the Parish Council as they believe it would reduce pressure on the water table that their pumping station at Searson Close is expected to handle as a means of last resort, that clearly it cannot. Many residents are of the opinion that the EA have the wrong priorities when it comes to spending money. Millions of pounds on an Eel pass and Badger protection as opposed to better protection from flooding for householders.
We now have a ‘Tallington rapid response flood team’ and new Flood wardens. The old Flood warden resigning before he was sacked for perpetuating an old feud with the Vice Chair of the Parish council and blaming the flooding of the village on him and his hedge cuttings keeping the river flap open and garden at Hawthorne cottage blocking a dyke. He also refers to a village pond being overgrown – there never was a village pond as Ordnance survey maps dating back to the 1890s show. I mention this only to set the context as he is currently peddling his theories around the village and via a website, leaflet drops and aggressive emails to MPs, Councillors, Environment Agency and others. John Smith will better explain the history of the Maxey Cut changes of the 1950’s.
An action plan has been put in place including the rapid deployment of the sand bags now returned to pallets in store 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 also purchased a 2” pump in mid-January that has been in almost constant use throughout January and most of February in particular at the XXXXX House near the rail crossing.
An additional 4” water pump (1600 + Litres) per minute has also been purchased, fitted to a heavy-duty trolley, located close to the river at one of the Flood response teams’ homes to allow it to be deployed quickly to pump ground level water from the dyke back into the river should the need arise and the EA pump is not in situ. Clearly this is not the long-term answer but moving a lot of water from the dyke when its rising can only be helpful. Remedial measures by any of the authorities are sadly likely to take a long time and it is clear that there will not be any quick fixes until the investigations carried out by LCC, are completed. This as prescribed under section 19 of the Floods and Water Management Act 2010. There are I am told at least 228 incidents, covering 818 properties in Lincolnshire alone following storms Babet and Henk that will not be reported on until the end of August this year at the earliest. This is on a scale not previously seen in recent times.
There are lessons to be learnt from this dreadful experience. We have a commitment from Gareth Davies MP 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 the historic broken/ blocked drains in the village! This includes, after many years of ignored lobbying by the parish council, 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 weeks.
Second Flooding event
As at 16th February the water table throughout the village and in the surrounding fields was still at record levels, the ground being totally saturated. This continued to cause problems with Toilets backing up on Searson Close, Main Road (after the Village Hall) to the Rail Crossing and even to some homes on St Lawrence way. Owners on the XXXXXXX XXX XXXXX Park also having issues. Residents were advised to always report their individual issues to Anglian Water so they can be logged. The Parish Council had also been pressing AW to help with tankers but we were continually advised that as it is classed as storm water it is not AW policy to tank away anymore! There had also been a lot of misinformation given to residents by AW representatives ref there being a pump failure at the Searson Close pumping station. AW continually assured us that there were no issues and that both of the 2 pumps, one a standby were working. The rainfall in February creating the usual road surface standing water – but just more quickly than in the past due to the ground already being saturated! The standing water serves to highlight yet again the continuing LCC /Anglian water drainage failures that we have been pursuing with them for years each blaming the other for the problems with surface water. Anglian Water are the owners of all the drainage assets in the village, surface and foul.
We all know where the problems are with the road surface/ sewer issues and they are clearly mapped out on the standing water maps on the Environment Agency’s website for all to see.
Sunday 18th February saw Mill Lane flooded again with water coming up through the ground, sewer and surface water drains similar to events of early morning Thursday 4th January. This after only moderate to heavy rainfall. Also rising water in front of the XXX XXXX Office, at the XXXXX House courtyard and at the end of Searson close. An increasing number of properties were left without toilets, backing up throughout the day and no help from Anglian Water who continued saying that they would not tanker away storm water and could do nothing! Calls for assistance resulted in the LCC highways emergency team sending a tanker late afternoon and with the help of a highways team commenced taking the rising water from Mill Lane. That proved futile so it moved to the XXX XXXX Office chamber and then to road outside XXXXX house from where it stayed till late after making numerous trips from village. The flooding experienced at the XXXXX house and on Searson close from the rising water from Sunday 18th February kept the Parish Council 2” pump busy on and off from then till 9.30pm Sunday 25th February pumping water to the waste land next to the East Coast line. An additional 3 pumps brought in by residents to tackle the rising water coming up through the drains primarily at the XXXXX House, Searson close and on Mill Lane as water continued to rise from the foul and surface water drains throughout the week. On the afternoon of Thursday 22nd February from 1pm and throughout Friday XXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXX Cottage saw water coming up through the floors and flooding yet again! Mill Lane is shown 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 3rd January and 22nd February have only confirmed it to be so.
A call on Thursday 22nd February morning to the Environment Agency FIDO team brought the trailer pump back to river bank and it commenced pumping early afternoon for approx. 3 hours. The river and dyke not being the threat this time it was turned off but it stays in situ just in case. The dyke being monitored by our Flood response team.
On Thursday LCC provided 2 gully tankers from Sleaford, working from 6pm and operating for 8 hours till 2 am and again throughout Friday sucking water from the surface drains and then depositing into the river at various locations.
The National grid work on Main Road commenced on Wednesday 21st against the Parish Councils advice but work was halted within minutes as water filled the trenches. However, it took a further two days to refill the trenches with tarmac causing traffic mayhem throughout Thursday and Friday. They will not be back till the summer they say.
The LCC flooding and water management scrutiny committee met on Monday 19th February in Lincoln, the recent flooding throughout the County being the main topic. Our county councillor Ashley Baxter being a member of this committee and having visited the village on the Sunday 18th February to see for himself first-hand the problems was able to raise the issues with the representatives of Anglian Water, LCC and the Environment Agency. Some of their responses showing a complete lack of awareness to the seriousness of the flooding.
Joint meeting of authorities with Parish Council of Friday 23rd February
Anglian Water’s Matt Moore, Flood Partnerships Manager Quality and Environment together with Area Manager Katie Glynn and Richard Fenwick, LCC Head of Highways Asset and local management services eventually visited Tallington on Friday 23rd February. We were joined by Tom Amblin-Lightowler, SKDC Environmental Health. They could clearly see the flooding in Mill Lane and at the Manor House for themselves.
To focus our discussions, I presented them with a copy of the Anglian Water presentation given to the parish council in July 2018 (attached). This set out the results of the surveys of earlier that year. It highlights the problems with the surface water drains in Tallington mapping them out along with the sewer drains. It also provided the various options for solving the problems including a recommendation to renew 482 metres of surface water sewer from the junction of Main Road and Bainton Road through to just before the crossing next to the Walnuts. However, it was almost 4 years before they could agree to jointly fund any repair works. In March 2022 a promised £150k project was halved at the last minute, stopping short of clearing the blockages that are now clearly evident in the village from the XXX XXXX Office to the XXXXXXX and under the rail crossing. Following the March 2022 partial clearance work Anglian Water advised me by email on the 12th May 2022 that they needed a budget of £400-£500K to carry out a full repair saying -
“The planned work has been completed on the culvert. During this work, we were able to remove a large amount of silt and it will therefore alleviate the risk of surface water flooding.
Whilst this work will provide an improvement to the village, we were not able to remove 100% of the debris. The only way to do this would be to excavate the road, remove the top of the culvert and relay and reinstate. We are obtaining a quote for these works but it is likely to be in the region of £400k-£500k. We have spoken with LCC in detail about this and sadly it is highly unlikely that either organisation will be able to find sufficient funds to complete this work. Once we have the quote, we will be able to confirm definitively.
Overall, we and LCC were pleased with the amount of debris we were able to remove and appreciating it’s not a 100% fix, this is still good news for residents. Alongside the other work in the community, this will mitigate the risk of flooding in Tallington”.
It didn’t and it’s got worse since to the stage that we are now at with the rising water being unable to escape as it should via the surface water drains through the village and under the crossing.
Clearly the real issue was one of funding. The Parish Council had hoped that following the joint meetings and presentations with Anglian Water and LCC of 2020/2021 and the attempted partial repairs carried out in March of 2022 by Anglian water, (with a financial contribution we understood from LCC Highways), that we would be beyond each authority trying to avoid responsibility.
The meeting of 23rd February clearly identified the error of not completing much if any of the recommendations of the July 2018 Anglian Water survey. LCC agreed emergency funding to provide a large 8” pump to drain down Mill Lane in an attempt to lower the water table and take the pressure of the foul drain system. This pump arrived late on Friday 23rd February and has been in operation ever since pumping surface water via 800 + metres of pipe across Michael Thurlby’s field to the Mill stream and eventually into the river. This pump, we have been promised will stay until a solution is found and the risk gone. Meanwhile a 4” pump hired by Michael T to clear Mill Lane was used to feed into into Mill Lane from the Old post office chamber on Main Road for 4 days.
Tuesday 27th February saw the start of a week of activity by Anglian Water engineers. Following a detailed appraisal of the drains from Mill Lane towards the crossing it was clearly established that there was at least one blockage somewhere between the chamber opposite the Manor House to the Chamber across the crossing to just in front of the Whistlestop pub. It was also clear that the underground culvert from the Whistlestop chamber to the open ditches to the east of the crossing were 70% blocked with silt and rubbish. Old Victorian bricks were seen at the bottom of this chamber. AW spent 3 days/nights clearing this culvert with specialist tankers. The dykes that should then take water along the A1175 towards West Deeping also being in need of major clearance work! Early pictures of the surface water drain from the double chamber village side of crossing back toward manhole opposite Manor House, that AW pumped out shows a dry-stone wall chamber on sand and gravel with very old flagstones over! Even older than we thought. (Photo attached). This is typical of much of the surface water drains throughout the village.
It was further established that the long-term standing water issues at Casewick Lane to the west of the village that have regularly marooned the resident of XXXXXXXXX Lodge were most likely due to an historic lack of maintenance of the dykes through the fields to the north of the village that go under the East coast Main line and through the cement works a quarter of a mile north of the crossing. This culvert is also overgrown and in need of clearance as are the dykes in the cement works that are full of polystyrene, weeds, debris and plastic containers. This is also restricting the fields to the North of the village draining as they should. SKDC officers are following up on the Casewick lane drain and dyke issues.
Meanwhile our MP Gareth Davies wrote at my behest to the CEOs of Network Rail and Anglian Water to make his and our concerns known of a suspected drain collapse under the East Coast Rail line.
The planned closure of the crossing overnight Saturday 2nd /Sunday 3rd March to allow Network Rail’s contractors CML to carry out a scheduled 5-year culvert clean (a year late since 2018 was last done) confirmed that there was indeed a surface water sewer collapse/blockage under the crossing. Plans were made for further investigation and an attempt to clear for the 16th March that would require a road and crossing closure.
On Saturday 9th March an additional large pump was installed by AW in front of the Old Post Office on Main Road to pump water from the deep surface water chamber there to the Mill Lane 8” pump in readiness for NR’s attempt to repair the collapse under the crossing and further protect the village until all blockages cleared. This pump installation work revealed what we had always expected - another collapse in a second chamber at the Old Post Office verge that was totally silted up with further blockages between the Old Post Office and the Walnuts towards the Rail Crossing.
On Saturday 16th March during the planned crossing closure to clear blockage /collapse NR discovered that it was not a collapse but a catch pit where a wooden lid that had fallen in. A steel plate was fitted but more work required on the culvert under crossing as NR had only managed to clear 11 metres of culvert under tracks before hitting a blockage / different culvert that is 80% blocked potentially for up to 30 metres plus. However, this doesn’t explain the large Victorian bricks discovered earlier? However, the NR press office still managed to inform the media that they had successfully completed the works?
The Anglian Water Area Manager Katie Glynn is now charged with scheduling further clearance works and trying to agree next steps with Network Rail, not expected till after Easter now. What has been agreed is 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 already stated, these 2 pumps will offer ongoing protection until a long-term fix is provided.
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 3rd January and 22nd February have only confirmed it to be so.
This failure of an Anglian Water asset has meant that AW have had to at last provide tankers at the pumping at Searson Close. These continue 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.
The Flood response Team is working well and together with the Parish Council we have agreed that the Flood warden team be made up of Cllr John Smith, John Atter and Rob Burdock although all members of the response team are and will act as flood watchers. Cllr Smith has been the main point of contact for the Parish Council with the Environment Agency for some years now through Nick Riches. The Parish Council also now has better contacts with the EA through Ben Thornely and Henry Hammond. Both have been accessible even when off duty of late. It cannot be stressed enough the benefit we have had from the Flood response team working together to share the load as a team. I am reasonably confident that they and their field teams will continue to be responsive to our comments and concerns. The change of Flood warden has helped .
It has become clear to me that following the repeated flooding of 9 properties w/c 18th February 2024, peaking on Thursday 22nd February, that many properties would not have been flooded had the blocked / broken surface water drains in Tallington been attended to fully by Anglian Water and LCC in the joint maintenance scheme 'attempted' but not completed during the works of March 2022
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. This has been exacerbated by the blockages under the East Coast Main Line crossing at Tallington that together with the poorly maintained dykes beyond and to the north of the village has resulted in the rising water being unable to exit the village as it has in the past.
It will be interesting to see what the LCC section 19 investigation report concludes over what role the blockage and the poor state of the surface water drains throughout the village had on the two flooding incidents? To my mind it was pivotal. Notwithstanding the failures of the Environment Agency preceding the 3rd January.
There was a meeting with SKDC’s CEO Karen Bradford and Phil Swinton on the 7th March to review SKDC’s response to the flooding and how they can continue to support us going forward. We were also able to explain the issues and show them where the problems are in Tallington including the Casewick Lane drainage. Throughout the past 10 weeks SKDC officers have offered support to Tallington and we are grateful for their ongoing assistance. A review will be undertaken involving Greatford to update the village resilience and emergency plans for the two villages. Drone surveillance mapping has recently been undertaken by LCC and SKDC.
We are pushing now for a complete fix this time to include the blockages that were not cleared during the March 2022 works due to the perceived lack of funding, (circa £400 to £500k). The costs now are mounting at circa £6k a week for 2 emergency pumps and piping to the river. Repairs now are also likely to greatly exceed the 2022 500k budget shortfall.
I have attached 16 photographs of the flooding in the village of the 4th January and 22nd February.
(Note for website: 40 more photos added later – some are available on Parish Website excluding redacted photos of individual properties for privacy of owners)
Following my telephone conversation with Mark Bickerstaff of 26th March I can confirm that if any clarification is required ref my report that I am available to talk on the mobile number below. I also trust that the investigators will arrange to meet with our vice chair Cllr John Smith during their visit of 9th and 10th April.
John can be contacted on XXXXXXXXX.
Cllr Philip Sagar FIH
Chairman Tallington Parish Council. Mob: XXXXXXXXXX. 5th April 2024.