South Milford & Lumby

North Yorkshire

South Milford Parish Council Newsletter
Flood Incident Report - October 2007

Since the flooding incident in June, a number of meetings and discussions have taken place with the various agencies that have responsibility for sections of the watercourses which run through South Milford.
The main agencies are the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and North Yorkshire County Council.
The areas for which each of these agencies is responsible are as follows:

. The Environment Agency has responsibility for Whin Dyke upstream to Steeton Hall causeway, and for Mill Dyke up to the railway cutting towards Sherburn, including the stretch close to Rose Cottage. These streams have been designated 'main river' status by the Environment Agency.
· Yorkshire Water has responsibility for the High Street culvert from Wain Gap to the junction of Mill Dyke and Whin Dyke (at the north-west corner of the Playing Field).
· North Yorkshire County Council has responsibility for the culvert that runs under the old A162 close to the Swan, for the culvert under the new A162, for the surface water drainage along High Street, and for Whin Dyke upstream of the High Street culvert.

Local residents have produced three reports on the incident, and the initial report (available on the website), was sent to the above agencies along with English Heritage (who have an interest in Steeton Hall), the Fire Brigade (who supplied pumping engines), the Highways Agency (Micklefield and Westfield Lane A1(M) drainage ponds), Selby District Council (who 'own' the Selby Internal Drainage Board).
Replies have been received from all the agencies (with one minor exception that is being pursued).
The Parish Council and local residents have discussed the incident with the Environment Agency who produced a report issued in 2003 on the subject of the various watercourses in the area and which agencies were responsible.
The main recommendations of this report were that the Environment Agency should model the behaviour of the watercourses throughout South Milford to update the indicative floodplain maps and to assess further improvement works and, secondly, to continue to liaise with the Highways Agency and their consultants to ensure the proposed A1 balancing ponds did not adversely impact upon flooding in South Milford.
A further report by the Environment Agency, due to be issued by the end of 2007 as part of a flood threat mapping of the area, will include the "hydrodynamic" model of the various watercourses, proposed in the 2003 report, to enable simulation of the effects of various water-flows such as those caused by high rainfall. It will enable various possible solutions to the village's flooding problems to be assessed quickly, hopefully leading to practicable and cost effective action.
We have arranged for the design performance data from the A1(M) ponds to be available to this simulation: this information will be provided by a company called RMS (as subcontractors to the Highways Agency), who designed and built the ponds and who hold the maintenance contract for the local section of the motorway which drains into the ponds. There may also be issues with regard to the construction quality of one or both of these ponds.
The most recent meeting with the Agencies was convened by John Grogan MP, where a summary of the South Milford incident was presented. The material used in the presentation is on the website.
This meeting will reconvene in January 2008.
Notable amongst the points discussed was Yorkshire Water's statement that the reconstruction of the High Street culvert (for which they are responsible), is to be included in their capital expenditure programme. John Grogan is to write to the Chief Executive of Yorkshire Water requesting more details of the timing and extent of this project.
It was also proposed that the Environment Agency consider cleaning the whole of Mill Dyke , from Bishop's Dyke, removing silt as well as vegetation.
Finally, it has been suggested that a South Milford Flood Committee be formed to represent South Milford in further meetings with Mr Grogan and with the relevant agencies. The Parish Council has expressed the view that local people are more than keen to participate in such meetings.
If you would like to contribute to this initiative, please contact Ann Rowling, Clerk to South Milford Parish Council, Butts Lane, Lumby, LS25 5JA.
This is in no way intended to discourage residents from making their own representations with regard to addressing their own circumstances, a course of action that the Parish Council supports.
The Parish Council will continue to work to reduce the threat of further flooding and will report on significant progress along the way.