Flood defences

The day of the flood I went around the police block on Ecclesfield road and over the Outokumpu site towards the Transpennine Trail and sat on the stairs.

The water was silently meandering its way down the valley, but I later found out that it was just 250mm deep.

What happened to the dam which was behind the pub which fed the works on the Blackburn Brook or the dam catching the waters from the Tom gutter through the estates, just off the Ecclesfield road?

What happened to the weirs behind the 512 freight company and the weir from Ambrose Shardlows which diverted waters to the dam?

What happened to the sports field that stood empty for the purpose of catching waters off the Blackburn brook?

This can be seen from the culvert, which was built, I believe, by Truebrite steels in 1906.

They straightened the river course and fed it along the old railway embankment with the access to clearing the grid on their side of the Blackburn Brook which eventually became Arthur Lees.

The catchment grid to the culvert built by Truebrite steels is an engineering marvel.

It allows for the grid to carry heavy objects to the pinnacle while allowing the fines to block the grid raising the waters on the river to 512 where it could access its old water course to the dam.

However, mistakes in blocking off the water course through building new houses means waters will flood the factories in any times for flood.

The answer to this side of the valley is the low-lying land higher up the valley being scraped off and letting it become a wildlife area in times of flood.

This has a set depth, otherwise it would be cast as a dam and that would not be allowed by the powers that be.

The council need to look higher up the valleys for their answers.

Name & address withheld