Torkington and Hazelwood Rds no longer look like rivers that greeted me when I arrived on Saturday 11th June . At its height, the water was only an inch from getting into many houses on Hazelwood Rd. The cars and especially bigger ones going through the water before the road was eventually closed made it even worse and nerve racking for residents – some of their own cars beginning to float in the waves!
One resident told me later on that they thought they were going to lose everything! oise Brook was thundering along behind the houses and it was still very full even a day later.
Nelson Street just off Hazelwood is normally a really calm place but that night the brook came really close to flooding their houses too. Some of their garden furniture was not so lucky getting washed some distance away.
The primary problem was that their was just so much rain so quickly but Torkington Road and Hazelwood road suffered because Poise Brook became blocked in Torkington Park and the water flooded out in waves out onto Torkington Road. Torkington Park itself resembled a lake for some time.
Some areas in Offerton, Marple & Poynton were worse off than we were. Although the emergency responses was pretty good, considering, there are some serious questions that need to be asked. Some of the flooded areas have never been flood risks before. What has changed and what is going to be done about it? Was the responses as good as it should have been? And how do we prevent this happening again?
Cllr Jon Twigge
12/6/2016
dear counsellor twigge
Lack of maintainance + blocked grids in Hazel Grove + Torkington Park overgrown all contributory factors in floods
1 Keep streams / rivers clear but that is difficult because of the debris being washed down.
2 Hazelwood and Shearwater are flood plains, why was permission ever given to build on them, it is a calculated risk which certainly for Hazelwood has paid off for quite a few years although I do remember my Aunties bungalow being flooded.
With climate change it will be more common, but we had two inches of rain in less than two hours which is unprecedented, my records show only one day in the past ten years with two inches of rain and that was over twenty hours.
What can you do? not a lot
The cause is quite simply that the Poise Brook grid and pipe allowing the water to pass out from the Park under Torkngton Road is not cleared often or we’ll enough. More regular and diligent crearing of the iron grid would haver prevented what became a dam which then held the water back and created a lake in Torkington Park that eventually overflowed over the wall and into the road.
Is it true that as part of the new SEMMS Road building, Carillion have been given permission to drain/ redirect water courses into surrounding brooks? This needs looking at urgently. We have lived in Hazel Grove for over 20 years and we and many of our neighbours have never experienced such flooding, despite previous heavy rainfall. Is anyone officially raising this with the contractors please?
I would also like to know about drainage from rhe new semms road. I live by the brook directly before it enters torkington park at carlton place. I have lived here for 22 years and never has the beook been that high or fast. It was very scary. The
construction of the road is only a hundred metrws from my home. All consultatipns said this would not affect my home but the continuing severe weather warnimgs are very concernimg. If the culverts block my hpme will be at risk of flooding. There are huge branches at the bottom of my garden which have been washed downstream, in totkington park there looks like a concrete pillar which has been dislodged from woodlands aide of railway viaduct now on other side and the debris screen in the park at hazelwood road end has been clogged up for the last 6 months. If it is not maintained then more flooding is to come.
Lack of maintenance ie clearing out grids regularly, has aggravated this problem. Commercial Road and Bosden Fold are a nightmare when we have had heavy rain. It s difficult to walk down Commercial Road without getting totally splashed by inconsiderate drivers most days. It makes me wonder what we pay rates for when the simplest of jobs are not undertaken. Prevention is better than cure.
Lack of maintenance is endemic because capital and operating budgets are separate. Huge amounts are being spent on the M60 but there is debris bud up and vegetation in the gutter and drains on the central reservation. All capital projects should come with provision for on going maintenance.
Plant trees, stop building, keep rivers well maintained, look after the drainage system – simple.
Not only were houses affected but businesses as well. I am a fitness instructor and teach at the Torkington Centre 80% of my business is run through the centre and the building was flooded. The centre is now closed minimum four weeks if everything goes according to plan. I am self employed and if I don’t work I don’t get paid. There are a lot of hirers that use the building who will all now be struggling to find new venues so they can continue to earn a living.
Thank you everyone for all of your feedback.
Clearly this was a very serious incident with a very large amount of rain in a short period of time. Everyone who was flooded or affected by it has our sympathy; having your home flooded is very unpleasant and can take a long time to get back to normal. I understand that the council will soon be putting a skip in Battersbay Grove, just off Hazelwood Road and Torkington Road for people that need to dispose of items.
The council are investigating what went wrong and I will be looking to make sure that the council prioritise clearing of drains in our affected areas and the brook to minimise the risk of this happening again.
Please do let me know if I can help in any way.
Jon
[email protected]
weekdays: 0161 406 7070
mobile: 0797 160 9799
Hello Jon
Since the flooding subsided I have been keeping an eye on the level of the water course which runs through Brookside garden centre. This is another point at which the SEMMS contractors are doing lots of digging / drainage work, and indeed where severe flooding occurred. The flooding absolutely wrecked the wonderful little enthusiasts railway which has been enjoyed by local families with children forever and a day. The water Brook there has always been a pretty low trickle. Now however, it is positively GUSHING at all times. It is fast flowing and considerably higher than it has ever been in the past. The speed of water flow is audible from the road as you approach Brookside on foot. This is now the norm, without rain. It is clear evidence of water courses having been diverted with possible detrimental permanent effects for the local properties. This needs looking at by local MP’s and councillors as a matter of urgency. We need action on this! Our fear is this will not be addressed as part of this current building activity and will leave an issue that will then be too expensive to sort after contractors have gone!
My property was flooded. I have been advised it will be several months before I can return.
I was offered no assistance by Police who’s sole contribution appeared to be to sit in their vehicleat the edge of the water. Nor did I see any other emergency services or council representatives. I am still awaiting a response with regard to increased refuse collection and additional skips to the proposed one and the opposite end of the road. Nor gave I received a response to my query regarding reduced council tax during my enforced absence.
Several people I have spoken to have referred to the excavation work for the relief road and it’s proximity to Poise Brook and having looked at local maps this theory cannot be dismissed. I look forward to the proposed meeting by the environment agency the only goVerney department I have encountered in the area post flood.
We have lived in hazel Grove for a long time and never encountered flooding like we had.
Too many houses and roads being built . The trees and vegetation remove the water levels. Which have been removed due to the builds. Plus lack of maintenance. The new bypass could also be the route course. Has a natural spring been redirected.????. Only time will tell. As hazel Grove has numerous natural springs.
In our area – Buxton Road, on the Hazel Grove side of Simpson’s corner – the work on the new A6 diversion was certainly a factor: four houses almost opposite Alma Road backing on to the former fields where the road is being constructed had large amounts of water pouring through from the field into their back gardens, along the sides of the houses and out on to the road. The water was silt-laden, and had the yellow colour of the subsoil which is piled up in the former fields. Nearer towards Occupier’s Lane/Carlton Place water was welling in quantity out of all the small grids at the gateways of the houses – presumably provided because the drives tend to be lower than the pavement – and adding to the flow. There have always been some drainage problems in a couple of places in the fields when they were used as pasture, but nothing as severe as on this occasion.
Because of the way that the camber of Buxton Road tilts, the water flow crossed the A6 roughly half way between Alma Road and Yew Tree Avenue, and, because Yew Tree Avenue slopes down from Buxton Road, was pouring down that road. When I walked up there, local residents were trying, without much success, to sweep the water back with yard brushes, fearing that the properties at the lower end of the avenue would be flooded. While I was there a couple of Carillion vehicles arrived with a (very!) few sandbags which actually helped more than I expected. However this presumably would have increased the flood risk for properties further on nearer to the centre of the Grove, particularly as more water was flowing in the same direction from the point where the new road meets the existing road at Occupier’s Lane. I saw no other sign of officialdom of any sort in my foray around the immediate area.
The problem was in some measure exacerbated by the number of grids in the area which are blocked – in some cases all too evidently for many years, to judge from the fact that they’re packed the the top with compacted silt. Stockport MBC’s maintainance of street drains in recent years has been pretty lamentable, and hardly lives up to the claim that Liberal Democrat-run councils do things better. We’ll have to see whether things change now that Labour’s in the driving seat in the Town Hall!
My husband & I recently purchased a bungalow on Hazelwood Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, but I am now worried about the lack of maintenance on Poise Brook which runs at the back of our property! Apparently up until around 6 years ago regular maintenance used to be carried out, so why does this no longer happen? there are overgrown & untended tree’s, a bag of cement in the brook with debris build up to the side of it! which could cause a blockage over time & maybe flooding! we all pay our council tax & should be able to expect a good service, surely prevention by way of regular maintenance is a better way forward, I am now wondering if we have made a wise decision in buying our bungalow! as every time we have heavy rain I will be worried in case the brook overflows & floods our property! So whoever is responsible for the (lack) of maintenance on Poise Brook, please do the right thing by your residents.