Market Rasen families “at breaking point” over flooding

Residents in Market Rasen who have been victims to several floods are “almost at breaking point”, according to a ward councillor.

Properties in Market Rasen has seen flooding several times this year in August, October and November – with the most recent heavy rain falling last Thursday.

Councillor Stephen Bunney, whose ward covers the town, said on Monday that two households he was helping in the most recent incident had in fact been flooded six times since 2020, mainly caused by surface run-off.

Lincolnshire County Council’s Flood and Water Management Scrutiny Committee at the time was being given an update on the current status of flooding (Section 19) investigations across the county.

Councillor Bunney said: “Those families now are almost at breaking point, if they haven’t already reached that breaking point.

“Every time the heavy rain comes they are anxious, they are extremely upset, and I believe we’ve reached the critical threshold point.”

He said in one incident, one of the households had just moved back in a week prior, and just had new carpets installed, which then had to be thrown out again.

Councillor Stephen Bunney. | Image: LCC

Referring to the report, he said: “The issue is that these reports identify what we might need to be doing and what needs to be done, but we’re not actually getting the action done.

“We know what the issues are, we’ve got a number of little short-term solutions – which might not be the big solutions that we see in other areas, but are important for those individual households – and I feel we need to be looking at how we can do that.”

He worried that while authorities “pass the buck,” the families could be subject to further flooding.

Committee chairman Robert Reid said the council needed to take action, to work closer with each other for prevention and to focus on ensuring insurance companies weren’t so concerned around flooding. He asked officers to accelerate plans moving forward.

Residents and emergency services work to tackle the impact of flash flooding in 2020. Photo: Councillor Stephen Bunney

Council officers admitted that Section 19 investigations, a statutory duty carried out by Lincolnshire County Council, did not necessarily bring a resolution to the core problems.

However, they said partners needed to work collectively to make quick fixes.

Matthew Harrison, Flood and Water Manager, said recurring issues needed to be a priority, adding that he had spoken to flood displaced residents himself recently.

He added, however, that some of the most recent flooding had not been caused by maintenance issues, but were that rainfall was so heavy it had exceeded modern design standard with water that would usually stand for several days draining away quite quickly.

“I fully acknowledge, there will be some situations where there are issues we need to resolve, and those where properties have been previously flooded will always be the priority, with discussions ongoing with highways colleagues or other organisations.”