Climate change means Derbyshire flooding will only continue, expert warns

Richard Ward, Derbyshire County Council (DCC) lead flood risk officer, outlined the work being undertaken by the authority to combat the issue to the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee for places.

“I’ve been in this area for 31 years and for me personally the biggest challenge is climate change, it’s had a profound effect in terms of getting more intense rainfalls in the summer,” he said.

“It’s noticeable, certainly with what’s happened in Derbyshire over the last five years and unfortunately that’s going to continue.”

Following the severe flooding in Matlock in February, DCC has build a hydraulic model of the town centre with Severn Trent Water, which it is using to get a clearer picture of the situation and how to address it.

Work is currently being undertaken to rebuild the flood wall adjacent to Matlock Bridge on the River Derwent, however he said mitigating works like this would only maintain the ‘status quo’ and could not necessarily resolve the problem.

Mr Ward said the authority was establishing community flood wardens, volunteers trained to act when flooding occurs, and said over time more communities would need such volunteers to cope with incidents.

UK Climate Projections estimates winter rainfall is likely to increase in the future, while summer will see less rain but more intense storms.

Mr Ward said leaves were a big cause of flooding, particularly in autumn, as they block gullies and prevent surface water drainage, adding that between half and three quarters of all public flood enquiries received by the council related to blocked gullies.

DCC was left with a backlog of more than 1,200 jobs to complete following the news that its contractor had ceased operation, many relating to cleaning gullies and the majority of which have now been dealt with.

In the last 12 months, £375,000 in grant funding has been awarded to both residential and commercial properties through the DEFRA Property Resilience Fund, including the Renishaw Property Flood Resilience Scheme during which households received flood doors and barriers to keep water out, air-bricks to improve ventilation and non-return valves to ensure liquid only flowed one way in plumbing systems.

The Grassmoor Country Park Natural Flood Management scheme has also been undertaken and included the creation of a shallow scrape to collect surface water and grass seeding.