WATER ,WATER, EVERYWHERE
PAUL McLAUGHLIN and HUGH SULLIVAN
Hastings town centre, Alexandra Park and areas in between were again under water last weekend following another sustained period of heavy rainfall – around two inches in just a few hours. The same streets that suffered last January’s devastating floods – South Terrace and Denmark Place, in particular – were submerged on Saturday morning. The emergency services evacuated residents and closed the nearby Priory Meadow Shopping Centre.
The clear-up, co-ordinated by an emergency planning team from Hasting Borough Council (HBC) in conjunction with staff of Southern Water and conducted in the main by impressive numbers of workers from the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (ESFRS), achieved rapid results in comparison with January’s experience, from which all parties had clearly learnt.
However, by the time you read this, the same low-lying areas in the town centre may have flooded yet again as a new storm, Ciaran, was forecast to bring further heavy rain to the south coast on Wednesday night and Thursday.
It was clear as dawn broke on Saturday morning that a new flood crisis was shaping up. Local residents called the emergency services as water levels rose. Police and ESFR staff started arriving on the scene before 9am. A team from Southern Water arrived by 10.30am, but they had to wait a further three hours before pumping equipment leased from Selwood, a pumping solution company, could be put in place. The draining of the surface water got under way by 2.30pm.
Danny Hunt, a Field Performance Manager with Southern Water who was directing the emergency pumping efforts, said it was too early to speculate on what caused the flood. However, he did indicate that the outfall pipe at Denmark Place had become blocked because of a build-up of beach shingle.
This blocked pipe has also been identified as one of the causes of the flooding in January. That’s according to a final report into it, prepared by Ardent Consultant Engineers on behalf of East Sussex County Council (ESCC), which was published just days before last weekend’s repeat. This report, delayed because of Southern Water’s failure to supply the inquiry team with full data, does not unambiguously pin the blame for the flooding on any one single cause, but makes it clear that partial restriction of the outfall at Denmark Place, resulting from a build-up of beach shingle, was a major factor.
Ownership of the culvert downstream of Alexandra Park to the outfall at Denmark Place has been in dispute for several years. Southern Water finally agreed to take responsibility for the entire length of the culverted watercourse in September 2022, after which they installed two additional pumps to increase capacity to pump water onto the beach whilst they conducted improvement works.
Prior to this, the company had installed a manhole to allow cleaning of the culvert at South Terrace as part of its bathing water quality initiative. This manhole flooded both in July 2021 and in November 2022, before spilling serious devastation in January this year.
As part of its investigation, Ardent sought evidence of what flood risk assessment had been carried out before the installation of the manhole. The report notes that: “Southern Water has yet to locate documentation which provides [this] assessment.”
The report also refers to “significant discussions” between East Sussex CC and Southern Water since January aimed at avoiding repetition, and to a number of mitigation, repair and preventative actions which have been identified as part of these talks. These include replacing the manhole along South Terrace with a sealed and bolted manhole cover and the installation of sewer level monitors on the foul system together with ‘non-return devices’ on the private laterals of flooded properties. Southern Water is said to be committed “to work together on improving the understanding of flood risk in the catchment” and “to undertake any identified actions as a priority.”
Some victims of last weekend’s repeat devastations are less than impressed – see adjacent report.
Local Conservative MP Sally-Ann Hart said it was “desperately upsetting” to see the devastation caused by the flooding. She said she was in constant contact with the emergency services when the flood warnings were issued, and she was a visible presence in the town on Saturday afternoon, meeting people affected. On Sunday morning she spoke with Lawrence Gosden, Southern Water CEO, urging the company to join the Sussex Resilience Forum, the body which brings together all the emergency services, councils, utilities and other essential public and voluntary services to work in partnership to support the local community during incidents and emergencies.
She also said she would press for more government resources for the town to deal with the emergency, and that she would be looking to ministers to extend the Flood Re government insurance scheme which covers residential properties in flood risk areas, to local businesses.
Helena Dollimore, Labour’s candidate for Hastings and Rye said it was “awful” to see the impact the flooding was having on residents and businesses and that Southern Water “needed to get their act together.” She called on the water company to offer emergency compensation grants to stop businesses going under and residents facing major financial hardship.
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