Storm Babet Flooding

The Clerk wrote to the Nottinghashire County Council Flood Team on behalf of Bestwood Village Parish Council to address the flooding at the entry/exit roads of Bestwood Village.

Over the past few years, our residents have experienced recurring instances of road flooding which prohibits access to and from the village, particularly during heavy rainfall. Both Moor Road and Goosedale Lane flood significantly, resulting in stranded children who's route home from school was unpassable and leaving residents unable to reach their homes owing to blocked roads and broken down vehicles. This has been particularly prevalent during the most recent storms Babet and Henk. This flooding does not only poses a significant inconvenience to the daily lives of our community members but also raises concerns about potential life-threatening impacts of Bestwood Village being cut off by road during these flood events. The long-term damage to the road surface and infrastructure in the affected areas, as well as the environmental impact of the increased traffic caused are also of significant concern.

As the local authority responsible for overseeing such matters, we requested that Nottinghamshire County Council give their urgent attention to this issue. We understand that addressing flooding concerns requires careful planning and sustainable solutions. Therefore, we encouraged Nottinghamshire County Council to collaborate with Bestwood Village Parish Council, Gedling Borough Council and other stakeholders to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current situation and explore viable measures to alleviate the flooding problem.

We asked the following questions:

1. What specific actions has Nottinghamshire County Council taken in the past to address flooding in our area, and what were the outcomes of those efforts?

2. Are there any ongoing projects or plans within Nottinghamshire County Council related to flood prevention and management in our region, including Bestwood Village?

3. Could you provide information on the feasibility of implementing sustainable measures, such as improved drainage systems or infrastructure upgrades, to mitigate the impact of flooding in Bestwood Village?

4. Are there any available grants, funding opportunities, or support programs that the Parish Council could explore to address the flooding issue collaboratively with Nottinghamshire County Council?

We gathered a number of photographs, videos and testimonials of residents who have been affected by the most recent flooding which we attached to our correspondence for the Flood Team to keep on file should they require evidence of the effect this has had on Bestwood Village residents.

We received the following response from Via East Midlands, who was asked to investigate and respond to our email by the Flood Team, in March 2024;

During Storm Babet we had to close 120 roads, and install 89 sets of flood signs across the whole county. Storm Henk the figures were 71 closures and 72 sets of flood signs. During working hours we have a larger workforce that we can call on to assist our response, but as is the nature of weather events there is also a requirement for response outside of these hours where numbers are more restricted.

While I fully understand your desire to focus on the issue on Moor Road and the impact on local residents and businesses, our response is much wider than this one road and to also deal with concerns of multiple properties in a number of communities being affected by flooding. So, while I am more than happy to discuss how we can assist with any flooding there needs to be an understanding of the pressures that we face during storm events and particularly the large number of calls we receive in a relatively short period of time.

During our investigation it was identified that the main culvert which runs from the road to Mill Race at the Morris Homes development near the River Leen suffered root ingress along some of the length. The outfall was completely under water and was surrounded by silt and self-setting trees that impeded the flow. The area where there was silt and trees needed to be removed by the landowner responsible for the watercourse, so we had to liaise with them about this matter.

In addition, there were two constant flows of water on to the carriageway which originated from the city boundary side but ran into our gullies and inspection chamber. This seems to be the main reason why the flooding occurred.

Moving forward we continue to liaise with Morris Homes about clearing the watercourse of silt and self set trees, and when these works are completed it is our intention to return and undertake a full survey of the drainage to establish whether any further maintenance works are required.

In addition, we have been in contact with Nottingham City Council regarding the constant flow of water that is piped into the drainage at that location, and we will be sending additional information on our current findings to allow them to investigate this matter.

Until we have been able to undertake the survey, we cannot guarantee that there will be no further issues at this location. A test will be if we experience significant rainfall, and experience water runoff from adjacent fields which caused some of the issues with water ponding on to the carriageway. However, we are hopeful that the maintenance we undertook will be sufficient to keep water flowing from the carriageway and into the watercourse.

For your information, Nottingham City Council maintain the highway from Hucknall Road to just before the flooding as it is within their boundary. From that point on it falls within the County Council's boundary and therefore maintained by ourselves on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council.

I appreciate that the matter did not move as quickly as you had liked, but I would like to assure you that we did our best to try and resolve the problem at this location as quickly as possible with the combination of factors involved.

In the meantime, I attach some useful links which may be of interest to the Parish Council.

Community flooding scheme shortlisted for national award | Nottinghamshire County Council

Schemes to help reduce flooding | Nottinghamshire County Council