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| Flooding caused by storm Henk at Little Hale (Jan 2024). Photo: Clive Simpson |
RESIDENTS of a Lincolnshire village want to call time on a flooding problem that has seen them marooned twice in three months.
Homeowners say they have been lucky so far that water hasn’t entered their properties - but they fear the next big rainstorm may tell a different story.
More than 20 villagers attended the parish council’s bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday (9 January) to air their views and concerns.
They want to see an end to the flooding threat which isolated the village after storm Babet last October and then again after storm Henk at the start of this month.
On both occasions the village was inaccessible to normal traffic as drainage dykes overflowed to block the B1394 road, which connects nearby Heckington with Helpringham and is used as a link between the A17 and A52 roads.
Cllr Amy Lennox, parish council chair, said work carried out in 2023 to help alleviate the flooding problem hadn’t proved effective.
Members of the public also expressed concerns that drivers of large vehicles ignored road closed signs and continued to drive through the water, creating bow waves that raised levels further.
Others suggested the flooding made emergency access difficult or impossible, with people also having to cancel medical appointments and being unable to transport children to school.
Cllr Andrew Key, the village’s representative on Lincolnshire County Council, said: “We don’t want to be doom mongers but with climate change you can’t help but think this problem is going to get worse.
“With such a large number of people expressing concern tonight it is obviously a very serious issue for this community and needs urgent attention.”
Anglian Water brought in a tanker to remove some of the excess water and repair a control panel that had been damaged by storm Henk and led to drains overflowing in another part of the village.
A spokesperson said: “Flooding is often an extremely complex issue with many different owners for the drainage network, such as Highways, local councils, private owners as well as ourselves.
“We’re already looking at future options for how we may be able to reconfigure our pipes and pumps to help the issue, but we also need to work with the local council, Environment Agency and Internal Drainage Board to keep drainage ditches clear so that excess water can get away more easily in the future.”
Several residents suggested the flooding problem could be solved by the installation of a large underground relief pipe linking a culvert alongside the main road with a drainage dyke in the heart of the village.
The Parish council is now preparing a new report setting out options to alleviate the flooding and says it will be contacting relevant authorities to make the case for urgent action.
Cllr Key said he had also been calling for repairs to the village’s Fen Road, the poor condition of which was being made worse by the recent flooding episodes.
“For a residential road it is by far the worst in my division and I am lobbying to get something done about it.”
