October 2017
Following the activity regarding the ‘Tom Rudd Beck’ overflowing at Cockermouth on Wednesday 11 October, Ian Storey, Managing Director for Cumbria and Scotland at Story Homes has shared the following update:
“High levels of rainfall caused the Tom Rudd Beck to burst its banks during this recent event. This beck is the central feature which separates phase one and phase two of our Strawberry Grange development.
“The Tom Rudd Beck sits within the ‘Blue Corridor’. The Blue Corridor is a known flood zone area, containing flood zones two and three as shown on the Environmental Agencies flood mapping data base. Story Homes is not constructing any houses within the flood zone and Blue Corridor areas.
“However, we are currently part way through the construction of the raised road, and bridge, which will link the phases together through this sensitive flood zone area. The height of the raised road, and bridge, has been designed to fit the needs of the area, and has taken into account the water levels of the Tom Rudd Beck during extreme flood events.
“During the flooding events on Wednesday the water level was significantly below the top of the bridge supports which are visible on site. This indicates that the design of the proposed bridge is appropriate to allow safe access during flood events.
“As part of the permissions secured to date to enable us to build this road and bridge structure through this flood plain area, detailed hydraulic models of the Tom Rudd Beck ‘in flood’ were created and agreed with the Environmental Agency; this culminated in a Flood Risk Assessment which was approved, and informed the design, setting the minimum levels for the road and bridge to be built to.
“We would like to reassure both our residents, and the public, that the water levels seen during this recent event are as expected, and in line with the detailed planning and carefully considered design for the Strawberry Grange development and linking bridge.”
