Villagers call for urgent action on £7m dam after 'roads flood and houses are marooned'

Twice in the past week the village has suffered from flooding during heavy downpours, despite the installation of a dam on the River Yarrow between Eccleston and Euxton in 2017.#

Kath Almond, chair of the Lower Yarrow Flood Action Group (LYFAG) said equipment set to monitor river levels at Castle Bridge has been calculated inaccurately, and called for "minor tweeks" to the system which activates the dam.

She said: "We are always on a knife-edge. We do not have peace of mind.

"We know that the dam works, because if it wasn't in place, we would have had the same level of flooding on Tuesday that we had on Boxing Day 2015, but it just needs tweeking.

"If there was a cloud burst between Croston and the dam, then the village would flood. The telemetry is not telling it to work quick enough."

Ms Almond said LYFAG has informed the Environment Agency for two years about the problem, but has been told the EA does not set the levels, that is consultants, Jacobs.

She added: "LYFAG met with the EA and Jacobs at the Bamber Bridge offices, but were told by Jacobs everything had been modelled and calculated and timed, and that they were correct in their activation level. I just wish they were here to see how accurate their calculations are.

"Roads are flooded, houses marooned. Sandbags have to brought out and delivered, vehicles under water."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said recent flooding “was in line with the scheme design”.

They said: “The Croston scheme was operated during the recent heavy rainfall to protect people, properties and businesses in the area.

"During the operation, our Field Team remained on site to ensure there were no issues. Early indications are without the scheme, homes would have flooded this week to a greater extent than in 2015.

“The scheme has protected hundreds of homes in Croston several times in 2020 already. We understand the frustration road closures can cause but the recent flooding of the highway was in line with the scheme design.

"The Environment Agency’s priority is to protect homes and livelihoods from the threat of flooding and reducing the current, low level, flood risk to the highway could potentially pose a greater risk to people and property.”

Jacobs were unavailable for comment.