By Local Democracy, Daniel Mumby.
TWO villages near Frome will share near a quarter of a million pounds of extra funding to protect them from future flooding.
The Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) has been working with Mendip District Council since 2019 on new schemes to protect residents of Rode and Beckington.
The two villages – which have seen significant interest from housing developers in recent times – were identified by the council as “high priority” areas due to their susceptibility to surface water flooding.
The SRA’s board voted in Taunton on Friday 16th September to prevent more than £248,000 extra to allow the agreed schemes to be finished before the end of March 2023.
Rode has been prone to surface water flooding for many years, especially the Old Brewery Lane area due to its proximity to an open section of the main culvert which runs through the village and discharges into the River Frome.
Any blockages of its culvert puts properties at risk, including around 25 homes on Old Brewery Lane and the nearby Rode Methodist First School – not far from the site where plans for 29 further homes were refused on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate in March.
The village is also vulnerable to “rapid run-off” from the large number of arable fields which surround it, especially during storm events, and the “potentially undersized or damaged drainage pipes” at the downstream end of the culvert.
To address these issues, the existing culvert will be repaired, with blockages and debris being removed, and new ‘trash screens’ will be erected to reduce future blockages.
In addition, a new attenuation pond will be created upstream of Old Brewery Lane, with additional tree planting and wetland to ‘slow the flow’ of surface water through the village and into the culvert.
These latter elements will build on small-scale improvements carried out in October 2021, which included the installation of a new field drain at Seymoor Court Farm just outside the village.
In Beckington, CCTV surveys carried out in 2018 found that numerous “misconnections” to the existing sewage system had “previously been unmapped” and were in varying conditions.
Several parts of the village are already prone to surface water flooding as a result of inadequate capacity in this system – including the whole of Goose Street and the homes at the bottom of Frome Road and Warminster Road.
The village is currently awaiting the outcome to two appeals which would see further local housing delivered – 45 homes between Warminster Road and the A36 (put forward by the Stonewood Partnership) and 30 homes south of Great Dunns Close (submitted by Redrow Homes).
Under the agreed improvement scheme, the ‘high risk’ parts of the existing culvert system will be repairs, with improved access for regular maintenance and the number of misconnections being reduced.
Landowners upstream of the village will also put in place measures to reduce sediment run-off from their fields and prevent debris from entering the culvert.
In both villages, Wessex Water is currently doing its own investigations into how the foul-water capacity can be improved in light of the current problems and possible new housing.
Caroline Murray, a flood risk engineer at Calm Engineering – representing the council – told the SRA board that the schemes were designed to “provide the most benefit for the two communities”.
She elaborated, “Rising fuel prices and costs of materials are escalating
construction costs – in some cases by up to 70 per cent higher than a year ago.
“By linking these projects together, we are able to reduce costs and maximise the benefits of delivery for these two communities within a shorter time frame and with less disruption.
“The projects will ensure the future resilience of the water infrastructure to manage the impacts of climate change and reduce the risk and frequency of flooding.
“A lot of time and funds have already been spent in investigating and developing the scope of works required, and both communities are really invested in its outcome.”
The board voted unanimously to provide an additional £248,326.86 to be shared between the two villages.
Work on the Rode scheme will begin on 7th November and is expected to be completed before Christmas. Work on the Beckington scheme will begin on 2nd January 2023 and could finish before March.
