Flooding

A number of sandbags and their modern equivalents, Aqua-Sacs, have been procured. When flooding is anticipated, these will be available from or distributed by the following people:

Cllr Linda McCarthy in Thorpe
Cllr Sid Davies in East Stoke
Tony Sharpe in East Stoke

The video at the link below explains how to activate the Aqua-Sacs:

On 15 January 2024 we met with representatives from Via (the highways management company for Nottinghamshire).

We had planned to meet Notts County Council’s principal flood risk officer but they were unable to attend at short notice, however the agents from Via promised to document our meeting and take items beyond their responsibility to the principal flood risk officer on our behalf. We will of course be following up ourselves.

We principally discussed the surface water run-off which came into the village from the south-west and north-west and the capacity of the underground culverts and pipes. The representatives from Via agreed that the first step is to assess whether the capacity (diameter) of these pipes and culverts is adequate given that the open dykes feeding them did not overflow and the open dyke carrying water away from the village did not overflow but the culvert entrances and road drains for the central sections without open dykes did not have sufficient capacity to prevent surface flooding rather than the water being carried underground. 

They will of course also inspect the pipes for blockages but we made it clear that we think the total capacity of the underground sections is insufficient, even when unblocked.

We’ll update you next after the assessment of the pipes and culverts is complete. 

Storm Babet in October 2023 brought flooding to over 1200 homes in Nottinghamshire, which is more than the total number flooded in the preceding nine years. Thankfully, Thorpe had few properties affected and none with flooding inside the house. Residents in East Stoke were less fortunate, with several homes infiltrated and extensive damage to some.

On 27 March, Ross Marshall, Principal Flood Risk Officer at Notts County Council, visited both villages.

After giving some advice to residents in Thorpe with Cllr Cherry-Downes present, he shared information and advice for residents in East Stoke as follows:

For those whose homes have air-bricks at risk of allowing water into the home beneath the suspended ground floor, it’s possible to fit float-activated self-closing air-bricks and also possible to obtain a flood resilience grant of up to £5,000 to cover this work. Residents wanting to apply should visit https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/stormbabet/#d.en.2388107 or contact Cllr Spencer Davies at spencer.davies@eaststokewiththorpe-pc.gov.uk if you would like to coordinate the works collectively. Another available product useful for these properties is a waterproof coating for bricks. Again contact Spencer if you want to coordinate this work with other residents.

At a recent inspection of the drainage infrastructure, arranged by Tony Sharpe for our flooding working group, VIA Highways identified several issues with the existing underground piping. Some blockages were cleared but some problems require remedial work, for which funding has been requested and which is expected to take place in May 2024 (we have a meeting scheduled in April to coordinate this). Additionally, we now hope to be included in a wider project to introduce Natural Flood Management (NFM) practices in areas near the village.

Between the infrastructure upgrades and introduction of NFM, we hope to achieve a significant reduction in future flood risk.