Elland residents' plea for them not to be forgotten when planning flood defences

Elland Flood Warden Amanda Beeden was one of several residents in Park Road, Elland, who spoke of the frustration, anger and isolation they felt after suffering flooding again.

Although it is a smaller community of around 40 homes and several businesses, they should not be overlooked or pushed down the authorities’ order of priorities, Calderdale Council’s Flooding Scrutiny Panel heard.

In particular, defences for Elland which may help Park Road had been planned but a decision taken not to go ahead with them on a cost-benefit basis.

But the meeting had heard that when flood defences further upstream were planned they had to take into account and mitigate impacts downstream.

That meant the impact on the Park Road area had to be tackled, residents argued.

Amanda said: “Are you saying Park Road residents don’t deserve that? We should be put back into the flood plan.”

She also said money needed to be made available to allow homeowners and businesses to put in their own defences that could meet the task – previous payments were nowhere near enough to make properties more resilient, with pumps able to shift 5,000 litres of water a minute which had been fitted still unable to cope with the deluge.

Ward councillor for Elland, Coun Victoria Porritt (Lab) had asked the Environment Agency’s Adrian Gill whether the Park Road scheme had been abandoned for financial or engineering reasons.

Mr Gill said money had been identified for a scheme but to mitigate flooding impact the costs rose and cost-benefit ratio, working within the council rules for projects, had been an issue.

Coun Porritt said flooding badly affected infrastructure and people in Elland, with consequences for mental and physical health.

“If the risk is higher we have to take responsibility for caring for this community, that they are not impacted time after time just because it’s not economically viable to look after them,” she said.

Chief Executive of the council, Robin Tuddenham, said he had worked in other places where 20 homes were flooded and it was an issue and here there had been 40 households affected in just one street.

Planning defences in bigger places did not negate the need to help smaller communities like this, he said.

“I have had discussions with senior Environment Agency staff asking to address the particular issues about Elland,” said Mr Tuddenham.

Chairing the board, Coun Josh Fenton-Glynn (Lab, Calder) said one key recommendation it should make was looking at what type of schemes were available for Elland.

And Leader of the Council, Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town) said of Park Road: “We absolutely want to look again at that.”