Millions of litres of water could have been safely pumped out to sea if a decommissioned pumping station had been operating during the flooding, an internal drainage board has calculated.
The Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board (IDB) is now calling on the Government and the ‘grossly under funded’ Environment Agency (EA) to look again the computer modelling which resulted in the closure of the Black Sluice Pumping Station, Boston.
Homes in Billingborough and Boston were flooded on Monday last week (January 6) following snow and heavy rain the weekend before – which the IDB say could have been prevented if the Black Sluice Pumping Station had been operational. The EA disputes this claim.
Flooding in Billingborough PHOTO: Jayne Coles
The Boston pumping station was decommissioned several years ago after a study suggested that the pumps being operational provided ‘no benefit’ for people or their homes.
Now the IDB team has worked out that if two pumps at the Black Sluice Pumping Station had been working it would have been able to get rid of half-a-million cubic metres, or 4.5million litres, of water from the swollen South Forty Foot this week.
Mr Withnall, who added that weather events are now more extreme, said: “Our argument is that we know now that 40 properties in Boston were flooded so we know that modelling was not correct. All we want is for that to be revisited.
Black Sluice Pumping Station, Boston. Photo: Google Maps
“We have formally asked for the modelling to be looked at. If we don’t make a noise, we will just be ignored.
“We have got to do something to try to encourage the bigger Government departments to take action and not just base it on evidence that we feel has been proved inaccurate.”
He added that previous governments have not recognised the agricultural value of the UK and that we are now feeling the effects of budget cuts.
Black Sluice Pumping Station, Boston. Photo: Google Maps
Mr Withnall said: “The EA is grossly under funded for the work they do.
“They are grossly under funded for the all the on the ground delivering maintenance, dredging rivers and all that stuff.”
Read all of our flooding coverage here
Mr Withnall said his IDB received money for completing repairs following the damage created by Storm Henk in January – but the EA got nothing from the last Conservative Government.
He said: “They had to fund it from their stretched maintenance budget. They had no extra money to do repairs.
“I am not aiming at individuals in the EA or the EA as a whole as they are doing everything they can with the resources they have got – and they are not being provided with resources.”
Mr Withnall believe that the flooding problems seen in Billingborough was a result of the water flowing via ‘highland carriers’ from places such as Bourne.
He said: “When the South Forty Foot is full they can’t discharge and the water starts to back-up on the highland water carriers and that’s when you get problems in Billingborough.”
“Everyone quotes climate change and things are getting worse and weather events are getting more extreme but no-one saw this coming.”
The Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board has an agreement with the Environment Agency not to pump water into the South Forty Foot when the drain is at 2.7metres high at Black Hole Pumping Station near West Pinchbeck.
The board’s pumps had been turned off for most of the crisis on Monday and Tuesday but were only used when the water reached the top of its dyke banks.
Mr Withnall said: “I don’t think it is a case of anyone person or organisation had done anything wrong, I just think it is the cogs of bureaucracy with Government departments are not moving fast enough.
“Damage to banks at Dunsby and Quadring occurred last winter and were not due to be repaired until February 2025. The original date was October but was pushed back to February.”
The back of the banks were damaged during Storm Henk last year – and if the stability of these are compromised it could have serious consequences for homes and the fields growing our food.
A temporary measure of placing polythene over the top of the banks was put in place to prevent further erosion. The grass which holds the bank together is also being damaged by the polythene.
The South Forty Foot overtopped the bank at the Dunsby breach at 2.95m instead of 3m, due to the damage to bank — which has resulted in fields and their crops being damaged.
Mr Withnall, who had previously asked for the bank height to be increased, said: “I am still hoping that those repairs are going to happen in February – it’s even more important.”
He said that the agricultural land is seen to be worth less than domestic properties in instances of flooding and the board has been trying to raise the importance of our local crops.
Mr Withnall said: “We have been trying to tell people that a field is a factory without a roof as it creates the food that keeps us all well. Why does a factory without a roof not get the same protection as one with a roof?”
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