Many residents are grappling with the aftermath of the flash flooding caused by the devastating storm in the late afternoon of the 25th July 2021. To date 29 dwellings suffered internal flooding most either by field runoff or runoff from the roads. Insurers appear to be helpful and understanding albeit with some persistence by residents. It would be good to hear if any residents have found their insurers unhelpful.
Important words / phrases regarding this event are……devastating storm, onetime event, flash flooding. The latter phrase is a term used by the Meteorological Office. The Parish Council has reported the scope and scale of the flash flooding to Suffolk County Council Highways such as the specific roads flooded (ie. somewhere on all roads in Brettenham). The high number of houses flooded due to one storm resulting in flash flooding makes this incident a high priority for SCC Highways under their priority guidelines. The Parish Council has the opportunity to provide further detail to SCC Highways such as more detailed assessment of road flooding and possible areas to focus on and reference to specific houses. It would help to illustrate the magnitude of the flash flooding if the PC may refer specifically your house. Therefore, please would you advise if the PC may refer specifically to your house by emailing Chris Clarke on chrisedclarke2@btinternet.com.
SCC also provides a guide on responsibilities regarding maintenance of the drainage ditches, culverts, pipes, open drains, brooks etc. Here is the guide Riparian Responsibilities and Flooding on the SCC Highways website. Key points from that guide include:-
- If ditches, drains, culverts etc. run through your land (farm land and house gardens) then as a landowner or householder you are a “riparian owner”.
- As a “riparian owner” you are responsible for maintaining and cleaning the ditches, drains, culverts etc. to allow free flow of water from adjoining land upstream.
- Where ditches, drains, culverts are not properly maintained resulting in water from your property not draining freely, the land owner or householder concerned should be approached first. If the issue is not resolved it may be reported to SCC Highways on their on line reporting tool.
NB. SCC Highways is responsible for drains and pipes on the roads
The drainage in Brettenham, as a general rule, runs from north to south bringing heavier weight of water as the flooding moves towards the southern end. Having said this, some houses at the Buxhall and Rattlesden end of Brettenham also suffered serious flooding due to road and field flooding. We would like to emphasise that the rainfall of 181 ml in less than 2 hours is very exceptional. Not only has nothing remotely like it ever been seen before in Brettenham, if you look at this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_weather_records you will see we could actually have claim to a UK record. The Parish Council will liaise with SCC Highways, where appropriate, to try to minimise the impact of flash flooding.
Further updates will follow.
Chris Clarke
On behalf of Brettenham Parish Council