I recognise that we have had a lot of rain recently but something feels different this time. One factor has to be the state of our drains and drainage gullies. Some appear blocked by weeds, others full of vegetation. Free flowing they are not, often resulting in a lot of water streaming off the land straight onto our roads. We need a national policy to ensure our drainage system is kept clear and works.

Another factor is the Environment Agency (EA) and its policy of river maintenance or rather its lack of maintenance. Let’s take the Chiltern Stream, the New Cut and the Stour all in Clare. Once upon a time the EA used to take full responsibility for all these waterways including the sluice gates at the weir. They operated them and more importantly kept them serviced and free from debris. This is important for a number of reasons. Balancing the restriction to water flow enables the waterways to remain at the appropriate level. This helps nature and the appearance of the country park. Nobody wants an empty stream nor do we want flooding upstream of the sluice gates.

Fairly recently this responsibility passed to the land owner. So we now have individuals making decisions about important infrastructure that has the ability to cause flooding. Add to that the land owners have been informed that if they don’t touch the sluice gates their personal liability is low but if they open or close them and get it wrong they could be sued. This doesn’t make sense until you realise that the real reason, almost certainly, for the EA not wanting to manage them anymore was to save money, for themselves. Hardly in the interests of the general population.

Today I spent all afternoon with a couple who had their house flooded two weeks ago. I mean properly flooded throughout their downstairs rooms. Raw sewage was flowing into their garden. The EA did eventually turn up a few days after it had subsided and pronounced it a once in a generation event. Two weeks on and they thought they had dried their house out.

Yesterday it started to happen all over again. Today they battled to keep the water out of their house. The garden was flooded completely and thanks, to our local off duty fire brigade, they had sand bags filled and laid out. The Anglia Water pumping station failed so raw sewage in the garden was a real prospect again. The owners are very upset as you can imagine.

So what has caused this “once in a generation event” that appears to be happening every two weeks? I’m no expert but it is obvious that the waterways are shifting significant debris with considerable force when in flood. I saw large tree branches floating past together with tree trunks. I understand three of the four sluice gates are blocked. The water is considerable and moving quickly. This is not something for an amateur landowner to consider unblocking until the waters have receded. Far too dangerous.

If the sluice gates were returned to the EA they would have the manpower and equipment to keep the sluice gates clear which would certainly have helped in this situation.

I raised this issue with the EA a number of months ago and blogged about it here https://nickclarke.blog/2022/09/16/clare-sluice-and-sluices-more-generally/

I could do very little to help the couple today except seek some publicity to put pressure on the EA. I contacted the BBC and the Haverhill Echo and will bring this up with our MP, to ask Ministers what they intend doing. again. I will also be writing to the EA.

This cannot continue.