Cllr Alan Dean

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stansted North on Uttlesford District Council and former Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Learn more

Read more on this

Read more on this

Today’s floods

by Alan Dean on 7 February, 2014

Flooding in Stansted today has been the worst in about 10 years. More rain is expected tonight. Premises in Lower Street were devastated when the road became a river before dawn this morning. Kings Butchers has probably lost most of his stock and expects to be shut for more than a week. The Queen’s Head public house was mopping out the bar late afternoon after the fire brigade had pumped out the cellar from being full of water to ceiling and pavement level. Yeoman’s café has been washed out, whilst the adjoining Store 18 gentlemen’s outfitters saw much of its stock and elegant fittings damaged. The water even permeated into the bar area of the higher building of the Stansted Mountfitchet Social Club. Chimneys Guest House received a dousing. Many cellars had to be pumped out.

The southern end of Lower Street after the peak of the flood.

There was anger early this morning at drivers who ploughed through the water at speed and created bow waves that washed into premises that may otherwise have escaped damage. The police have been asked to control traffic of there is a repeat of the floods tonight and tomorrow.

The northern end of Lower Street near the youth centre and the source of the flood water.

The main source of the flooding is Ugley Brook which descends towards Lower Street from the B1383. It was dry yesterday. This morning it was a raging torrent so strong that the culvert under Lower Street, and which emerges into Stansted Brook near the railway, simply could not take the volume of water. Debris which blocks the grill at the entrance to the culvert aggravates the situation. There are issues about the management of the grill, which is regularly cleared of debris by civic-minded, neighbouring residents.

Uttlesford District Council’s emergency team issued this notice today.

The culvert under Lower Street begins here. It couldn’t cope with the volume of water.

The parish council’s limited stock of sandbags was distributed late this morning in case there is further flooding, but it was not available to help reduce the impact of today’s flood because no one knew it was coming. If this winter’s weather is to be an increasing trend, I think better contingency plans and equipment need to be put in place. We may not be the Somerset Levels here in Essex, but the effect on individual people and businesses has been devastating just as the economy was coming strongly out of recession.

The cellar at the Queen’s Head full to the brim with flood water. Several other Lower Street businesses were hit badly and remain closed.

 

 

   2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. John Bell says:

    Hi,

    Has the Ugley Brook maintenance ownership been resolved yet? I was staying at my sisters in Lower Street last night when they weather forecast came on indicating that rain was likely to which she asked her partner to go and check that tho grate at th Ugley Brook was clear of debris. We took a look and it appeared to be ok (there was quite a bit of vegetation growing which I would think requires removal). Is it any clearer which agency should be taking ownership of the management of this?

Leave a Reply

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>