Croydon Council has alerted Kenley Ward councillors, Mayor Perry and the Cabinet Member for Streets and Environment that the Environment Agency has issued a flood alert concerning rising ground water levels along the Caterham valley which states:
“Groundwater levels in East Surrey and South London have been rising throughout the winter following higher than average rainfall. Levels continued to increase through most of February and early March in response to heavy rainfall and storm events. The Caterham Bourne between Woldingham and Purley is close to flowing. Properties with deep basements and low lying land in and around Purley and the Caterham Bourne may experience flooding. Riparian owners are reminded to keep clear the sections of river that flow through their land. Flooding of properties, gardens and low lying land elsewhere is not expected at this point in time.
The Environment Agency is monitoring the situation alongside Surrey County Council, Tandridge District Council and the London Borough of Croydon. We will update this message on Wednesday 13 March, or sooner if the situation changes.”.
Following draft statement, officers from Croydon highways, comms and emergency planning teams held a teleconference with colleagues at the EA to discuss action and activities to get prepared. These include:
- Notify Ward Members of the EA flood alert
- Notify residents and signpost them to useful information on what to do to protect them and their properties. Residents will be encouraged to sign up to a Met office site called ‘My winter’ giving regular digital content similar to a blog, hosted on www.metoffice.gov.uk/weatherready. The site aims to tell personal stories about winter and its impacts by providing engaging written content (with photos and graphics if appropriate). The stories also demonstrate how weather forecasts play a vital role in helping people prepare for and react to weather.
- Door knocking to reassure residents and ensure they are aware of the alert
- We will be initiating regular Caterham Bourne teleconference meetings between the flood management and resilience teams at Surrey County Council, Tandridge District Council and Croydon Council, supported by Sutton and East Surrey Water (SES Water) and the Environment Agency, to monitor ground water levels, general flood risk and to share information amongst the stakeholders. The group will also review each other’s operational plans to ensure each party understands how their decisions in a flood event could impact on each other.
- Our Resilience Team automatically receive weather alerts/flood guidance statements and follow a set protocol of sending them out.
- The weather alerts go out to a pre-identified list of people including a severe weather warning group (incl. highways, social care, public health, comms etc) councillors, and resilience partners. There are pre-identified actions for each department depending on the level of response (example below for wind and rain warnings).
- Our highways team have already started cleaning gullies and trash screens in the area. Street cleansing will be increased in the area
Some Kenley residents may be affected by this alert, I have written about some of the flooding hotspots in Kenley before. Yesterday afternoon I walked the length of the Bourne where it flows though Kenley to also check the trash screens and see the flow. Although it was clear that the Bourne is flowing, It was good to see the trash screens cleared.
I have also been in communication with Deano Cline, the Chair of the Whyteleafe Parish Council. We met a few months ago to discuss issues around the Bourne and agreed to keep each other updated and help to join up communications.
Bourne flowing through the old allotments
Bourne flowing through Bourne Park
