Official reports examining the severe flooding that affected Binstead, Bembridge and Monktonmead last summer are now available to read online.
Flash floods in July and August 2021 led to blocked roads and submerged properties after the Island was hit by spells of torrential rain.
In response, the Isle of Wight Council commissioned 3 independent investigations to better understand the causes and any factors that may have influenced the severity of the flooding. The in-depth studies involved collecting information from those directly affected by the flooding, as well as private bodies with flood management responsibilities.
All 3 so-called ‘Section 19 flood investigation reports’ have recently been published on the council’s website for public examination at https://beta.iow.gov.uk/planning/flood-risk-and-watercourse-consents/flood-risk-and-investigation/.
The council will now consider all the recommendations, taking into account how many can be delivered and in what timescales given the resource and cost implications.
Some actions will require the council to work closely with key stakeholders and landowners, including Island Roads, the Environment Agency and Southern Water. This is already underway in Binstead where local residents are set to be consulted on potential options to mitigate against future flooding next month. The council has allocated funds towards the works with additional financial support secured from the Environment Agency and Southern Water.
In Bembridge, a multi-agency meeting with the parish council will be taking place soon to discuss flooding.
In addition, the Environment Agency and Isle of Wight Council are contributing to a 5-year Property Flood Resilience scheme that provides grants for flood improvements to individual qualifying homes. Bembridge and Monktonmead, in Ryde, have been identified as areas that could benefit from this scheme as a result of the Section 19 reports.
At Monktonmead, the Environment Agency has already started to review the recommendations within the Section 19 report relating to recent flood mitigation works at Simeon Street Recreation Ground.
Councillor Jonathan Bacon, Cabinet member for the environment, said:
“It was essential that we took action to properly look into the causes and impacts of the flooding that occurred last year. Many residents were adversely affected and much distress and damage to properties resulted.
“I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this work as their input has proved invaluable as we now look to take forward potential options to take preventative steps and to mitigate the risk of similar flooding occurring in the future.”
When it rains in the Island, the drains cannot cope.
Why build more properties on an island that cannot cope with drainage etc,
Island infrastructure cannot cope.
Agreed…, its simple really , no building or development within the catchment area UNTIL all of the infrastructure is in place Any already agreed should be suspended until the problems are solved
One can expect the true cause, thousands more homes built, along with more roads and pavements running extra water, which pre there construction, would have slowly naturally drained away, will NOT be the reason highlighted.
Too much money at stake to blame the real reason, so pussyfoot around blaming anything and everything else, which WE will pay for via higher c.tax, whilst they keep their builder pals ‘sweet’
Worrying after a deluge we need three indpendent and costly investigations to be undertaken on behalf of the council to determine that probably the drains hadn’t been cleared and emptied for years, additional housing on greenbelt has meant more water run off. The council lurches from one crisis to another and needs to understand that the residents of the island pay heavily in council tax and other charges and usually all we ask in return is for you to run the island without any major drama’s, not working from home under a duvet using google maps as your reference.Rain falls out of the sky,has done since the star of time,is it too much to ask that the council can and should have put measures in place to negate its effects.
The Council knew that their building policies would cause extra run off and more flooding, but a few quid is worth more to this lot than a few moaning residents who should have insurance. There ARE councils who now take into consideration the removal of soil Absorbtion when deciding on planning applications and even prevent dropped kerbs and driveways unless the extra run off is tackled. Just a shame that our lot still live in the dark ages.