flood evidence collection form

It is important that we build as much evidence about the recent flood as we can so that we can develop the villages flood defence scheme. If you were in anyway affected at all please complete our flood evidence collection form which you can find by clicking here.
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Latest Information from
Leeds city council

Context of the Boxing Day Floods
 
The period between October – December 2015 was exceptionally wet across the north of England, this created higher than average water tables, river levels and generally very saturated catchments.  On top of this, Storm Eva delivered a huge and prolonged amount of rainfall, the resulting floods were widespread and severe.  In many places we saw record river levels, initial estimates suggest that the magnitude of the flooding was in excess of 1 in 100 years on the Rivers Aire, Calder, Wharfe, Ouse and many others.  
 
Impact on Collingham
 
Flood defences at The Avenue were overwhelmed flooding at least 12  properties, this was made worse by water being trapped inside the defences which meant properties were flooded for a number of days until the Fire Service could pump the water away.  We’ve also been made aware of potential issues at Millbeck Green, The Kingfishers, Bishopdale and Church Lane which will be investigating.  Linton Bridge was very badly damaged and remains closed for repairs.
 
Our Response
 
Unfortunately we were unable to attend the initial meeting held in January but we have since visited the area and had a number of meetings to start looking at ways forward.  We are committed to working in partnership with Leeds City Council and Yorkshire Water to investigate what happened, we will have meaningful discussions with residents and elected members to try to find ways to improve flood protection and flood resilience for Collingham in the long term.
 
Work done since the floods
 
Across Yorkshire we are working hard to repair damaged flood defences and ensure that they provide at least the same standard of flood protection they did before Boxing Day 2015.  We currently think that while the defences at The Avenue were exceeded they were not badly damaged, we’ve also had no reports of damage to the defences at Mill Beck Green.  We’ve also been working to minimise the impact on the environment from flood related pollution incidents and this is continuing.  In addition we are trying to engage and inform affected communities about what happened, how we’re progressing and what we are doing to improve resilience in future.  We have installed an alarm on the monitoring telemetry in the Wharfe at Collingham that will in future allow us to issue a flood warning to residents, even if alarms in the upper reaches of the catchments have not been triggered.  We are also reviewing the flood warnings on the Wharfe in order to improve them further.  To enable this we have been gathering data about the level and extent of the flooding and we are now analyzing it.  We have undertaken a visual inspection of the defences at The Avenue and the bank slip opposite, further investigation and survey will continue.  We are also working with Leeds City Council to facilitate repairs to Linton Bridge and to assist the installation of a new temporary footbridge across the river.  We have met with Councillor Julian Holmes (Collingham Parish Council), Councillor Matthew Robinson (Leeds City Council), Alec Shelbrooke MP and a number of affected residents to discuss ways forward and this will continue.
 
What’s planned next? 
 
We will be doing more engagement with residents to further understand what happened and what can be done to improve flood protection and resilience.  We want to improve the take up and understanding of the flood warning service in Collingham and we would like to recruit more Flood Wardens in the area.  We will be meeting with residents of The Avenue soon to look at the existing defences there and discuss what improvements are needed in the short and long term and we will work hard to try and justify the required funding to achieve that.  We will be attending the planned meeting at the Memorial Hall on Tuesday 26th April and look forward to speaking to as many people as possible.  We want to develop a comprehensive strategy for Collingham looking at all the areas at risk of flooding and all the potential sources including the River Wharfe, Mill Beck and surface water and sewer issues.  We want to develop a strategy for the Wharfe so that flooding in Otley, Collingham, Linton, Wetherby, Thorpe Arch and Tadcaster can be addressed with a catchment wide approach, utilising upstream flood water storage as much as possible, as well as traditional hard engineering.  We will be undertaking some initial site investigation works such as level surveys and will be looking to appoint consulting  engineers to undertake a study to propose options to reduce flood risk in a joined up way.  We will also be looking to establish a regular forum to consult with Collingham residents so that you are kept informed and have every opportunity to have a say about this work.
 
John Woods
Flood & Coastal Risk Management Advisor
 
Tel: 02030 256540 (Internal 56540)
Email: john.woods@environment-agency.gov.uk
 
Environment Agency
Lateral
8 City Walk
Leeds
LS11 9AT

For information regarding Linton Bridge and Flooding click here​.
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flooding information

 GAS SUPPLY TO LINTON VILLAGE                  6th JANUARY 2016

As a result of the Linton Bridge closure, NorthernGas network isolated the gas main running across the bridge over the Christmas period.Both gas pressure and all services have been maintained during this time.

Northern Gas network operations team met today with parish councillors Richard Bolton and Angela Martin at Linton bridge to discuss what will happen in both the short and long term, and to enable  residents to be kept up to date with events.

In the short term two temporary pressure regulators have been installed.  It was agreed that these will remain in their current location on the footpath on the Linton side of the bridge and will have covers fitted in the next few days. The area will be made good with Tarmac.  This ensures that a continuous supply of gas will be maintained to all our properties.

We jointly recognise that a long term solution should avoid  gas running across our bridge as there has been a problem with leaks for many years and the operations team are looking at long term options. It is likely that a site will need to be found in the village to house a permanent gas regulator and this issue will be a matter for ongoing discussion.

flood recovery support

6th January 2016
 
Council reveals full details of flood recovery support schemes in Leeds
 
Leeds City Council has today released additional details of the financial support being made available to help households and businesses recover from the recent floods.
In terms of households, the council is offering two schemes to help domestic properties affected by flooding following Storm Eva:

• A £500 compensation scheme to help householders recover from the floods. This may, for instance, help with rental costs at a temporary home. 
• A council tax relief scheme to aid longer-term issues caused to residential properties by the flood, with 100 per cent discount on council tax for a minimum of three months

The £500 compensation will be a cash payment to householders affected. For details of the qualifying criteria for properties as well as additional support and guidance on flood recovery visit the council’s website at www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Council-support-for-flood-hit-homes-and-businesses.aspx.
The council is looking to make payments as quickly as possible and expects the first payments to be issued today directly into householders’ bank accounts where it has got all the information needed to make a decision.
In terms of businesses affected by Storm Eva the council is offering a range of measures including:

• A grant scheme providing up to £2,500 in cash to aid immediate clean-up and recovery costs. 
• Full business rates relief for a minimum period of three months 
• Visits to affected properties to assess damage and advice on recovery 
• Environment health advice for businesses 
• Assistance for firms needing to find alternative premises 
• A flood resilience grant of up to £5,000 available to help make commercial premises more resilient to any future flooding - further details on this will be published at a later date.

The financial schemes are available to eligible businesses only. To see the full criteria visit www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Council-support-for-flood-hit-homes-and-businesses.aspx
The council is also working with the Manufacturing Advisory Service and Leeds City Region LEP to assist manufacturing businesses impacted by the floods, with visits already being made to more than 30 businesses to assess the damage and advise on the recovery to help get businesses back in operation as soon as possible.
Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Judith Blake said:
“The flood waters may have thankfully now receded but the problem has by no means gone away, people and businesses are still suffering so we need to do everything we can to help them make a full recovery as soon as possible and hopefully these measures can start that process. The point has been made loud and clear that in order to stop this happening again Leeds needs comprehensive flood defences to be in place as soon as possible, and we will continue to press the government until that has been successfully achieved.
“I would like to take this opportunity again to thank everyone in Leeds who helped and continues to offer help to those in need. All of the council officers, many of whom volunteered their services, deserve huge amounts of credit alongside the efforts of the emergency services and hundreds of community-based volunteers. Many stories are emerging of amazing efforts to help, such as the NHS nurses who visited people’s homes supported by the police in order to make sure some of our most vulnerable residents were safe. It is that sort of selfless commitment which makes me so proud of our city but it is important to stress the work very much still needs to go on.”
In addition to the support on offer to those affected, the council is also working with the Leeds Community Foundation on their fundraising appeal.
Funds raised from the appeal will be used to provide grants to affected householders, businesses and community groups. Donations can be made online at www.justgiving.com/leeds-flood-relief-appeal or by sending a cheque made payable to Leeds Community Foundation to Leeds Flood Relief Appeal, Leeds Community Foundation, 51a St Paul's Street, Leeds LS1 2TE. Further details can be seen at www.leedscf.org.uk.
Those residents or businesses looking for support can find out the details at www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Council-support-for-flood-hit-homes-and-businesses.aspx, call 0113 222 4444 or email floodrelief@leeds.gov.uk
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River levels

River Wharfe
Collingham Beck

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Letter from the Parish Council Chairman

​I hope most of you already know that The Avenue Collingham has suffered a serious flooding episode. Around 12 houses have been inundated with, in places, several feet of water. All day yesterday (28 Dec) and into the nigh, residents have been evacuating belongings and, with the help of a volunteer from Pontefract who had access to 4 pumps, we have been slowly trying to remove water which is trapped inside the flood defence bund that was over-topped.

This afternoon (28 Dec) we finally got support from the Emergency Services and we have two fire tenders pumping at full blast. They will stay until the water has gone unless they are called away to attend a life- threatening incident. We also have an agricultural pump. As you can imagine the flooded properties will be in a terrible state. Environmental Services have arranged skips to take damaged belongings away from tomorrow (29 Dec). This really is a disaster for the families affected.

Also in the same vicinity Linton Bridge has had to be closed. Engineering assessment, started on today. There appears to be downward movement in the southern bridge abutment (the structure that holds up the bridge where it meets the road embankment). This is unusual as things normally fail in rotation, i.e. by twisting in some plane. We think the bridge is still moving, and regular surveys will confirm whether this is the case. We can only hypothesise at this time as to the cause and further investigation will include divers when it is considered safe to enter the water. 

The Bridge is not safe to cross even on foot. Please respect the warning tape and do not attempt to cross it. The gas, water and electricity services to Linton all cross the bridge also and are presumably under a great deal of distress.
The bridge will be closed for many months. It may be opened up to pedestrians if deemed safe to do so at some point. This is obviously a great inconvenience to us all but at least nobody has been hurt.

Please feel free to share this information with others around the villages.
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Best regards
Julian Holmes
Chair of Collingham with Linton Parish Council