Flooding

Continued engagement between your Parish Council and the relevant authorities, supported by our Town and County Councillor have been focused on improving the drainage in the village following the evidently poor clearance of water witnessed during recent storms and prolonged and unprecedented heavy rainfall. This engagement had included several on-site inspections and development of a plan of works.

The work needed will be tackled in several stages. The first stage will be the underground inspection and jetting of all storm water drains right from the spring at the west-side to Swallow Field Hole at the east side. This will also then produce an accurate and up-to-date map of all underground infrastructure which will help with any future works if needed. At the spring side the pipe underneath the road will be cleared and/or repaired or replaced as necessary. This will not only clear a lot of the pipes but it will also identify any repair works needed (e.g. broken pipes, misaligned pipes etc). The jetting gang will of course be accessing all drains up and down the village which will affect traffic at times. This phase is expected to last about a week. This work is currently being scheduled by Highways.

Once this has been completed a detailed list of further works will be identified and that will include looking at clearing and improving some of the gullies, improving the outflow from Swallow Field Hole, installing additional pipes etc. It could well be that it may become necessary to dig up the road in places to replace broken pipes which may affect traffic.

All this work will take some time to be completed. We cannot give absolute timelines for completion of the works but will continue our engagement and update via our website as and when updates are provided. The village can of course expect some minor disruptions during the phases of work but we are sure that you will tolerate these as the outcome is aimed at improving the storm water drainage flow as much as possible.

Whilst we hope all identified works will be carried out fully, we are of course aware that many areas need remedial action and the completion of all projects will no doubt be subject to available County Council funding. We will of course press for maximum outcome for Welby.

We are grateful to those villagers who have helped to keep gulleys clear or helped to assist with water flow in other minor ways. It remains the intent of the Parish Council to ensure the relevant authorities are engaged to deliver the necessary and future proofed improvements that will help us all.

Two of the main problems have been identified (blocked drain near Swallowfield hole and several blocked drains along Main Street) and these are being addressed by Lincolnshire County Council. We are doing the utmost to get LCC to address these drains issues asap. LCC have already committed that they will clear the blockage near Swallowfield hole. LCC will also clear the various drains in the village of silt. Once these 2 problems have been fixed we / LCC can determine what additional work is required near the spring.

The chairman of LCC has been out in person together with his person responsible for drainage issues several weeks ago. He also attended our parish council meeting last week and again reiterated that the necessary works are beings scheduled. There is a significant call on their resources as there are areas in Lincolnshire that are far worse affected however we have their attention at the highest levels. The moment we hear more about dates and further details we will communicate this with the village via our website. We will keep in contact with LCC and maintain the pressure. They are fully aware of our predicament.

Clearing the blockage as well as pumping out the drains should alleviate any overflow into the sewage system considerably. The activities planned in springtime are longer term activities. These involve the clearing of some of the ditches and water containment areas: Swallowfield hole as well the pond near the spring (opposite the main pond) which is completely overgrown. This work will be done by local farmers but as it involves the use of heavy machinery we need to wait till the ground can support this equipment as currently it is completely water-logged. Again, once we have more details we will communicate this via our website.

In the mean time Anglian Water are also busy working on the sewage pumping station:

1. There are 2 pumps there
2. The old smaller pump has been repaired and is now working properly
3. The other pump was replaced with a larger model but unfortunately wasn’t working correctly – this pump has been replaced with the same model larger pump and is up and running now
4. The new large pump that was defective has been repaired and has been delivered to site. It is now awaiting installation.
5. The main problem is the overflow of rainwater into the sewage drains as the pumping station was never designed to cope with all that extra water.
6. Once LCC have cleared the storm water drains the sewage systems should be able to cope with the “normal” volume.

Welby Parish Council has been engaging with the proper authorities to determine courses of action to assist with the flood water situation now (and hopefully) in to the future.

The following is a summary of activity:

To put the recent rains in to wider context, there are over 70 separate events across the County that require investigation and several of these include significant flooding of homes in multiple locations

The Leader of Lincolnshire County Council was contacted directly and he has been to the village in person, walking the full length of the village with members of the Parish Council, and he now has a clear understanding of the locality and the water drainage system and issues. The drains closest to Swallowfield Hole will be jetted as soon as possible (noting the large number of areas that are under investigation) in order to assist with water flow – currently it appears that there is blockage / restriction of water flow at the eastern perimeter of the village and having this jetted through should assist with drainage overall in to the dyke at the east end of the village. The drainage of surface water can then be assessed following future rainfall and we can work backwards addressing other issues. However, solving the most significant outflow point is clearly the most important thing to do. We are grateful to the landowners who will allow access to the drains that have openings on their land in order that the outcome of jetting can be assessed as it is in progress.

The natural spring at West End is acting as one would expect a natural spring to do and the overflow is too much for the culvert and the pond to manage. The level of the pond is above the level of the drains that flow in to it and the water table is of course very high.

Local Farm Owners have agreed to support and cleared gulleys and roadside drains in order to encourage rain water to flow away near its fall point rather than becoming run off that causes problems in other areas. Where possible this has also included flushing through of sub surface drains to remove blockages. This has been done voluntarily and through goodwill and community spirit. Particularly we hope that this will ease the flow of water down Church Lane.

Anglian Water have been engaged to investigate the pumping station. As of today they have reported that they have repaired one pump and await parts to upgrade the second pump. This will return the pumping station to full efficiency. In the meantime the tanker will continue to remain in situ to pump away excess water that the one pump cannot deal with. Once both pumps are functional the tanker will then be removed.

The roadside drains have kindly been cleared (by local residents) of debris to maximise the flow of water into them. This of course will need doing again once leaves start to fall in quantity from the trees. Self help here is vital and all are encouraged to support this to avoid excess water flowing along the road.

The Parish Council has a bag of sand in Ivy Farm yard that can be accessed to fill sandbags and we are aware that many residents have obtained sand bags and individuals can collect sand bags from the SKDC site by prior arrangement. If access to the bag of sand is needed then please make contact via the Parish Council contact details. This is as much as SKDC or LCC will do as they make it clear that private residents are responsible for protecting their own properties.

It is clear that there is no direct linkages between sewers and stormwater drains. Any storm water that has accessed sewers is simply as a consequence of it flowing in to the sewers via access points. There may be properties that in the past have had linkages made between sewers and surface water drains but this is not by design and problems caused by this again would fall to individual home owners. The sewer flow has probably assisted a little with the flood water drainage but it is not by design. Therefore people should consider that normal use of their household fittings that are attached to the sewers should remain as normal

We have focused on holding the appropriate authorities to account and getting the right people to take action and this has happened hence we are now in a position to provide this update. This has been supported by some self help but only related to existing drains. We are advised that well meaning attempts to move flood water in other ways could likely simply transfer the floodwater issue to someone else or by bypassing the existing route lead to longer term problems and actions of this nature are not advised.

We will continue to access the proper authorities and hold them to account and press them to act in accordance with their responsibilities to improve the conditions in the village.

This proactive response has been achieved through the actions of the elected members of the Parish Council using the correct routes and we will continue to do this in relation to matters that impact the village and its parishioners

Other updates will be provided once we have further information to provide. If anyone wishes to have more detail then please contact either Mike Priestley or Councillor James Pask.