Dear Parishioner
Following the Thurgarton Village Flooding Meeting, which was held at the Village Hall last Wednesday 7th February, I promised to send out a note that described the meeting, the presentations and captured the essence of discussions that were had there.
The full set of presentation slides utilised at the meeting are now available for you to look at by clicking here Within the slides you will find the agenda, and the details of each speaker’s slides.
The presentations and speakers were as follows:-
- Introduction – Tina Tsoukatos, Chair, Thurgarton Parish Council
- Thurgarton Emergency Plan (TEP) – Natalie Robinson, Councillor for Emergency Measures, Thurgarton Parish Council and Austin Brady, Base of the TEP
- Property Flood resilience – Ross Marshall and Josh Wells, Principal Officers, Flood Risk Management Team, Notts County Council
- Water safety – Frazer Cross, Notts Fire Service
- Flood Mitigation Solution – David Hickman, Executive Officer, Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board (IDB)
Main points to take away from the meeting were:-
- Thurgarton has been blighted by flooding for some time with major flood events in 2007, 2013 and 2023. The value of houses within the village are believed to be negatively affected by these flooding events, whether any particular house floods or not. Hence, this meeting was aimed to be informative for all Thurgarton residents.
- After 10 years of working with the IDB there is now a working project, with funding, to provide Thurgarton with a means of reducing flooding within the centre of the village. David Hickman, Executive Officer IDB, described this project which has a timetable of completion by the end of 2024. The project will involve building an embankment to hold back water running off the higher ground down to the village and draining into the Beck. This water will then take 24-48 hours to seep through the pipework within the embankment thus allowing the Beck and other drainage ditches to better cope with storms and flood water. Details of the timetable can be found in the slides.
- Property flood resilience is the responsibility of the householder. There are now many ways of protecting homes from flooding and of course this work should be done in preparation for a flood, rather than having to repair the house after a flood event. The slides show a variety of ways and means of property flood protection.
- The Thurgarton Emergency Plan (TEP) is fully operational and is there to assist in any type of emergency that Thurgarton may suffer. The TEP only works if volunteers from the parish make themselves available. The most common type of emergency within the village is flooding and the TEP successfully assists those residents who, in an emergency, are in danger of flooding. This is not a alternative to calling 999 in an emergency or to providing your home with flood resilience. The village can be subject to flash flooding where blue light services and local Councils and agencies are unable to attend in time and this is where the TEP can be of real assistance. What the TEP is and how it works is described in the slides.
- We need more volunteers and co-ordinators for The Park and the Main St areas for the TEP. Please see the slides for more details.
- In a flood event it is not wise to walk, bike or canoe in flood water. Flood water is dangerous, both because it contains a range of contaminants and because it conceals dangers to life such as open manholes and drains. DO NOT ENTER FLOOD WATER.
Severn Trent were also invited to present to the village but were not able to make it that night. However, it has been agreed that a Severn Trent representative will attend a separate meeting, possibly a Parish Council meeting, in the near future. This meeting with Severn Trent, will be a public meeting and will be advertised in the usual way.
If anyone would like more information on any of these topics please get in touch with me using the email below.
Thanks and regards, Tina
Tina Tsoukatos
Chair, Thurgarton Parish Council
tina.tsoukatos@thurgarton.org.uk