Flood Update
Last weekend (23-24 November) we had 47mm of rain in 48 hours.
That is about normal for the entire month of November!
It is a great relief that Tingewick survived largely intact, while Gawcott, Preston Bisset, Buckingham & others suffered severe problems.
Since the disastrous floods of December 2020 the Parish Council has worked with, & are still working with, Anglian Water, The Environment Agency, Bucks Council & JBA consulting, (a sub-contractor to the EA) who completed the required section 19 report. This is triggered when 5 or more homes are flooded. JBA investigate the causes & offer measured & calculated solutions for both immediate & long term actions to prevent future floods.
Work so far has included camera inspections of our main culverts & sewers, with repairs where necessary, more frequent emptying of the road drains, early warning systems in the foul sewer system to warn AW of impending problems, non return valves in parts of the sewage system where AW have deemed appropriate & possibly most significantly, after many requests from the PC, the large balancing pond at Finmere roundabout, which takes the by-pass run off, has after many years of neglect, been inspected & long overdue maintenance work has been carried out. This will now be inspected annually.
Plans for the future include replacing drop kerbs & installing upstream water storage areas, to hold excess water during storms.
Hopefully, all of the above has helped to prevent further problems, but that’s not an end to it.
Climate change does appear to mean we will get more of these unusually heavy storms so it is important for us all to try & do our bit.
You can help by trying to empty ‘rain saver’ water butts if bad weather is forecast, being prepared & where able, ensuring leaves & other debris don’t build up on the road drains.
We are lucky in Tingewick to have our excellent flood response team of volunteers & a great community spirit, which is evident whenever problems occur. The PC will continue to press for further improvements & together we can try to make things better!