Progress on long-term solution to Catcliffe's flooding threat
A PERMANENT solution to the flooding risk which blights Catcliffe and Treeton has moved closer, with progress on plans to hold water back before it even reaches South Yorkshire.
Talks have taken place between Rotherham Council, Derbyshire County Council and the Environment Agency on proposals which could see storm water held in that area, before entering the River Rother.
It is excessive amounts of water which have overwhelmed flood defences in recent years, causing the communities to flood.
Council officials have reported more talks are scheduled early next with, with a shared enthusiasm for the scheme.
In a second positive move, engineers have now carried out ‘modelling’, which shows if the bridge on Treeton Lane was raised by 900 mm, it would allow sufficient extra water to flow through to prevent the type of flooding experienced last year.
More work needs to be done on that idea, however, to ensure opening up a bottleneck at the bridge would not allow other downstream areas to flood.
If they went ahead, those two changes would make a significant change to the community’s flood risk, leaving the water system able to cope with more extreme storms, of a type only expected once in more than a century.
There are also plans to install a permanent pumping station, to help disperse flood water, in Catcliffe rather than moving in temporary pumps.
They are needed four or five times a year at present, and Rotherham Council acknowledges that residents - some who have been flooded up to three times - find it unsettling to see pumps arriving in the village.
Councillors were given an update of flood prevention work by their officials and were told the meeting over the River Rother was “very positive” with support for “looking at what we can do within their area to help reduce the risk of flooding in Catcliffe” and “further meetings are planned in the New Year”.
Some smaller flood alleviation schemes have already happened, including drainage changes in Trenton to protect eight homes and the installation of an earth bund at Connor Road, Thorpe Salvin, to prevent water spilling across the road.
More will follow, though funding is still needed for big projects.
Councillors praised the work of staff in moving projects forwards quickly in an area where progress is notoriously slow.