Northwich Flood prevention group lodges petition

The Northwich Flood Prevention Group (NFPG) is non-partisan and consists of a number of residents and businesspeople, including surveyors, insurance brokers, construction specialists, former councillors and communications experts.

The group has recently published an e-petition on CWaC’s website, calling on the authority to do more to implement permanent solutions to mitigate flood risk - but the council says it has been 'introducing improvements and solutions for some considerable time’.

William Briggs, spokesperson for NFPG, said: “Due to the urgency of the potential flood risk to Northwich and the onset of autumn which typically precedes flood events, NFPG has lodged an e-petition via the CWaC website, calling for immediate action to protect the community, residents and businesses of our town.

“The scenes of elderly residents being helped from Weaver Court, the flooding of Witton Church Walk Primary School and the material damage to businesses and residential premises in the town centre must be addressed and avoided if at all possible and CWaC, as the Lead Local Flood Authority, along with United Utilities, the Environment Agency and the Canal and River Trust are key to implementing the necessary measures as an absolute priority.

“We believe that there is an urgent need to implement permanent solutions to mitigate the flood risk to Northwich town centre and the communities alongside the River Weaver flood basin.”

The petition includes five key aims, the first of which calls on United Utilities to reinstate the temporary water pumps which were recently removed from their pumping stations on Barons Quay and Dock Road.

The second asks for all necessary flood defence infrastructure (including drainage and pumps) to be installed in a minimum of three locations in the centre of Northwich.

NFPG’s petition also calls for the council to ‘agree and implement’ a strategy with the Canal and River Trust, to ‘fully communicate the details of all plans and strategies’ and to work with United Utilities, the Environment Agency and all other Risk Management Authorities to agree a ‘formal programme’.

The petition can be found at: cmttpublic.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=162&RPID=9809722&HPID=9809722

But a spokesperson for Cheshire West and Chester Council said the council has been taking action, introducing improvements and solutions for ‘some considerable time’, including setting up a Flood Risk Action Group.

They said: “As a result, over the past year improvements have been introduced for Northwich, and progress has been made to mitigate the effects of flooding.
These include implementing temporary and mobile pumping units.

“Our new Multi-Agency Flood Emergency Plan enhances our response so all partner agencies operating in Northwich and elsewhere in the borough, such as the Environment Agency, United Utilities and the Canal and River Trust, mobilise flood defences and staff in a unified way.

“A Northwich-specific flood response plan has also been developed.
“In addition to these improvements, following Storm Christoph, we commissioned work in the form of Section 19 reports to examine all lessons that could be learned and implemented going forward.”

The council is taking these finding to its Cabinet Meeting on Wednesday, September 14.
“So, we have already undertaken work to mitigate the more immediate impacts of flooding and for the longer term we have been investigating how to improve drainage,” the spokesperson continued.

“We have done this by developing an Integrated Catchment Model, introducing an early warning system to identify rising water levels in the highway drainage system and investigating the installation of gully sensors to monitor water levels so we can react promptly to any surface water issues.”

A dedicated webpage on the subject can be found at cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/transport-and-roads/highways/flooding/storm-christoph-flood-emergency-response-progress