F E AT U R E By Robin Gray and Amanda McDermott
Tackling flooding in the Calder Valley Slow The Flow Calderdale demonstrates a community-led response to tackling flooding
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n Boxing Day 2015, 2,781 homes and 4,416 businesses in Calderdale were flooded, causing significant damage. The economic and social implications are still ongoing. Part of the community-led response to the dramatic impact of December 2015 was the formation by the authors and professional colleagues of Slow The Flow Calderdale (STFC), an unincorporated charitable organisation (www.slowtheflow.net). Led by volunteers; the organisation works alongside statutory services to address flood events and works on practical solutions, including Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and Natural Flood Management (NFM). Amanda McDermott explains; “I was personally affected by the Boxing Day floods when our house in Mytholmroyd was flooded. I was one of the lucky ones as we were not living there at the time, so our tenant had to cope with waking up on Boxing Day to sirens; rescuing her belongings from the flood waters and living on a building site for months whilst remedial work took place. Meanwhile, we dealt with
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organising the property renovation and the financial impact. I became aware of other qualified individuals in the valley interested in investigating how NFM solutions might be able to help and we came together as Slow The Flow Calderdale. I have been able to use my experience in SuDS to influence council policy in their emerging Local Plan (and Flooding SPG) policy. I have led the work which encourages the local community to implement SuDS by providing information and demonstration projects on the subject.” Robin Gray observes, “I was aware of so many theories and myths generated on social media as a result of the Boxing Day floods. Through my academic work, I was aware of the great wealth of knowledge in our universities that I knew could address risk and resilience. As a result, I organised a ‘Science of Floods’ workshop in town. Stuart Bradshaw, a geotechnical engineer living in the valley, had already set up a monitoring project based on a series of weirs where he lived. Stuart was able to upscale this proposal for the ancient semi natural woodland in the Hebden Water catchment owned by the National
1. Amanda McDermott carrying out river surveys on Hebden Water. © Robin Gray
2. Ways to Slow The Flow diagram. © Amanda McDermott
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Trust (NT) at Hardcastle Crags. Working together with the NT, our proposal was taken up by the Environment Agency (EA).” The impact of December 2015 was felt in communities up and down the valley, whether it was surface water impacting on highways or highways collapsing. As a result of this there was an appetite to take a catchment approach. Evidence from the NFM DEFRA Pilot Projects ‘Making Space for Water’ including the Slow the Flow Project in Pickering, alongside the Stroud Rural Sustainable Drainage Scheme inspired our approach in Calderdale. Addressing flooding in the Upper Calder Valley is a major EA priority with two significant engineered schemes at design or under construction for the communities in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd. However, encouraging wider catchment initiatives and specifically NFM, with its additional Green Infrastructure benefits, to comple ment these hard-engineered schemes, has motivated our voluntary work.
Through my academic work, I was aware of the great wealth of knowledge in our universities that I knew could address risk and resilience Robin Gray
