Dunsby farmer says South Forty Foot Drain repairs need to be a priority after Environment Agency ‘anticipates’ starting in ‘early 2025’
A farmer says repairs to a damaged river bank should be a priority after officials said they cannot guarantee when this job will be started.
Ben Atkinson is facing ‘substantial financial losses’ after 200 to 240 acres of cereal crops were flooded in Dunsby Fen. The issue came this month after the South Forty Foot Drain overtopped a river bank which was damaged over a year ago.
The Environment Agency says it has to prioritise repairs due to amount of damage inflicted by Storms Babet and Henk but ‘anticipates’ to start putting right the South Forty Foot banks in ‘early 2025’.
The agency has also come under fire for refusing to look again at the computer model which resulted in the decommissioning of the Black Sluice Pumping Station, in Boston, which some believe would have prevented the recent flooding in Billingborough and Pointon.
Mr Atkinson also feels that the pumps should be brought back into use and is concerned that the EA are still ‘harping back’ to the 2015 computer modelling.
He said: “One question they struggle to answer is - why were the pumps placed there in the first place?
“I do think repairs should become more of a priority. Unless they learn from these problems and make the much needed investment to try to stop it happening in the future, more houses are going to be flooded.”
The section of bank, along with another at Quadring, was damaged in Storm Henk in January last year and flooded - and were due to repaired by the EA in October but this did not happen.
Mr Atkinson drilled winter wheat and barley into the fields near the South Forty Foot after being assured by the EA that the repairs would be completed in October.
He has also warned that the damage could be more ‘significant’ if river banks are not properly repaired in order to prevent breaches.
Mr Atkinson said: “I had offered to repair the banks but the EA only use national accredited contractors.
“It is devastating to think that I could have repaired the bank.”
The EA said the repairs to the South Forty Foot have been delayed due to priority sites being sorted first.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “We anticipate the repairs to the South Forty Foot will start in early 2025, however we cannot guarantee that they will be completed by February. Delivery of these repairs is dependent on weather, safe working conditions, and environmental constraints.
“By readjusting our programme we have managed to allocate a percentage of our 2024/25 budget to repair some flood risk management assets that present the highest risk.
“We will prioritise our maintenance funding using factors such as properties at risk, asset type and benefit cost ratio.
“With so many damaged assets after Storms Babet (October 2023) and Henk (January 2024), works have had to be prioritised. Sites where homes are at risk are taking precedence.
“The works originally scheduled for October at the South Forty Foot Drain, have unfortunately been delayed as these higher priority sites are delivered first.”
The agency also came under fire last year for the time taken to repair the breached river banks at Cowbit and Crowland Wash.
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