Lincolnshire County Council promises to help residents affected by flooding in Grantham and other parts of county into ‘recovery phase’

Flood-hit families will be given help to move to a ‘recovery phase’, as the authorities try to deal with the fallout of this week’s extreme weather.

As a result of flooding along Belton Lane, in Grantham, on Monday (January 6) residents’ homes have been left damaged, with some being told they may not return to them for at least six months.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue was called to aid residents, helping them to safely leave their homes and get to temporary accommodation.

However, some residents have been critical of Lincolnshire County Council’s response — and said that a grassroots community effort did more to help in Grantham, with some members of the public helping to clear drains along the street.

See all of our coverage of this week’s floods here

County councillor Lindsay Cawrey, executive member for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue and emergency planning at LCC, said: “Officers from across the council were working throughout the day and night on Monday and Tuesday, coordinating the multi-agency response to the flooding across the county, including in Grantham.

“This includes crews from our fire and rescue services who helped residents evacuate Belton Lane in Grantham and provide advice to households.

“Highways teams also closed roads to keep drivers safe, or pumped water out to reduce the impact on communities.”

LCC is now helping affected residents with the next steps as the face up to the long process of getting back to their homes.

Coun Cawrey added: “We continue to be heavily involved, with our partners, as we move into a recovery phase, supporting residents across the county with clean-up operations and advocating for financial support from the government for affected households and for investment to carry out flood prevention work.

“As with all instances of internal flooding, we’ll carry out an investigation to look at all the factors that contributed to this flooding, and make recommendations that we and other partners can carry out to reduce the risk of this happening again.

“After storms Babet and Henk in late 2023 and early 2024, we started work whilst these investigations were ongoing, clearing out drains and working with landowners and other agencies to make sure drainage systems were working as well as possible.

“This all helps prevent as many communities as possible from the devastating impacts of flooding in future, and this work is ongoing across the county.”

County firefighters dealt with more than 150 calls about flooding across Lincolnshire on Monday, including in and around Boston, Grantham, Louth, Sturton by Stow, Cherry Willingham, Greatford, Wainfleet and Trusthorpe.

A specialist water rescue team from Boston and flood pumps from Alford, Sleaford and Holbeach were used in the response as well as multiple fire appliances from stations countywide.

Also, Billingborough crews used a High Volume Pump (HVP) through the night to remove around five million litres of water over 14 hours.

All flood water has now been removed and access has been restored to homes.

Mark Baxter, chief fire officer for Lincolnshire, said: “This has been a multi-agency response to a major emergency, and our firefighters have stepped up to a whole range of incidents. Flooding has a real human impact but the response shows the power of organisations and communities working together.

“It’s always a little disappointing that some of our call outs could have been avoided, for example where people have ignored road closures and driven into flood water, becoming stranded; or where cars have pushed flood water from roads into properties.

“We work hard in Lincolnshire behind the scenes to prepare for and respond to emergencies in the best way, and residents can also take measures to do this.”

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