The Welney Wetsite (!)
Wash Road floods, winter 2006-7, page 2
this page last updated Monday, 12 March 2007
Letter from Welney resident Claire Freer, published in Cambs Times, Jan 2007:
I write concerning the coverage of the flooding at Welney, as I am one of the parents driving the additional miles to school everyday. I have a slight advantage in that I work in Ramsey so do not have to travel 80 miles to take my children to school (40miles each journey). The children are unable to attend any after-school clubs, play with friends after school or at weekends.
I am a governor of the school and have had to miss two meetings already because of the flooded road and will be missing a full governors' meeting again next week. The cost of this avoidable disruption to me personally is £120 a month in terms of fuel. I have not calculated the cost of my time or the wear and tear on the car.
I would like to know if there is anyway of reclaiming this additional cost. I would also like to know why the road was miraculously clear the two weeks of the Christmas break.
I knew about the road when I moved here but in the last four years there has been negligible disruption. I would like some answers not excuses.
Claire Freer, Suspension Bridge, Welney
Letter from Fens historian and author Trevor Bevis of March, published in Cambs Times, Jan 2007
Hardship and inconvenience caused by extended flooding at Welney Wash follows a relief plan created 350 years ago when the New Bedford River came into being. The area in question acts as a vital valve releasing pressure upon the embankments during excessive rainfall.
The road has always been recognised as a causeway subjected to flooding at certain times of the year. To elevate it would necessitate the construction of several culverts and would cost millions. Efficient management of sluices, at Denver for instance, certainly comes into question. Silt is always a problem affecting sluice gates and watercourses. As far as the Fens are concerned silt can jeopardise efficiency well inland.
More than three centuries ago the Bedford Level Corporation drew up rules for sluice keepers operating and maintaining Denver sluice, Salter's Lode sluice and the Old Bedford River sluice (1631) contiguous to the tidal river "and requiring constant care." Sluice keepers have always been regarded as indispensable experts in the unrelenting struggle to prevent the Fens from reverting to their former state.
In our own day and age it is becoming necessarily expedient to economise. Certainly this affects maintenance and staffing. Costs escalate and modern-day guardians of the Fens with licence to exercise powers over three great Levels have to balance expeditious planning with income and expenditure. There is no easy answer.
Seeing what has happened in the country in the past few weeks through the devastating onslaught of gale-force winds and torrential downpours serves to remind those of us residing in the Fens how very fortunate we are to live in an area served by the most efficient drainage system in the country, on equal par at least to the Netherlands. By rights we should be up to our necks in water. The costs of keeping the fields and our feet dry must be enormous, almost prohibitive.
I believe the drainage commissioners do a good job, yet regarding Welney's existing problem and bearing in mind the rational attitude embodied long ago in the Bedford Level Commissioner's directive, at the forefront of our reasoning can we expect more of the current drainage commissioners? Does consistent silting against the sluices and the dire effect it is having inland deserve greater remedial action?
Trevor Bevis, St Peter's Road, March
There have been many instances of drivers ignoring the road-flooded signs, and driving around or moving barriers in order to try their luck crossing the Wash Road. For many that resulted in a flooded and stalled car - good business for recovery companies, but as the following report on the internet version of the 'Fenland Citizen' posted on 23rd January 2007 shows, it can also mean diverting many expensive resources from their proper purposes to rescue idiots from their own stupidity.
A helicopter crew have recalled the dramatic moment they spotted a man in freezing cold flood water and winched him to safety. "Nobody else was going to get him," said Flight Lieutenant Andy Ball, one of the four-man crew of an RAF Sea King helicopter from Wattisham in Suffolk.
The man – believed to be in his 40s and from Norfolk – had driven from the Littleport direction to Welney before his car became submerged. When the crew spotted him, after being alerted at around 9.15am on Sunday, he was "waist deep in water and hanging from a tree". "He looked like he needed immediate evacuation," said Flt Lieut Ball. Winchman Sgt Paul Hunter dropped some 70 feet to bring the man back to the helicopter with the aid of a special harness. He was very cold and treated in the helicopter while it made the eight-minute journey to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at King's Lynn where the man, thought to be suffering from hypothermia, is being treated.
It is thought he had been trapped by rising flood water for around six hours. "He was certainly pleased to see us," Flt Lieut Ball added. Cambs Fire and Rescue Service and Norfolk fire service attended the scene after anglers heard cries for help. A loud hailer was used to communicate with the man and faint cries were heard. The coastguard and the RAF were then alerted as they were unable to reach him. "He is lucky to be alive," said Yarmouth coastguard watch manager Peter Wheeler.
on a lighter note, this photo was taken when the Ouse Valley Molly Dances visited Welney on 20th January.
(photo from the Ouse Valley Molly Dances website)