Alconbury Brook Flood Group Bulletin January 28th 2024

Hydrogardens

• Hydrogarden units fully installed at Memorial Hall and filled with hydrosoil

• Most work done. However 50% of spoil removal, addition of topsoil and sleepers to planters still to complete and general tidying up.

• Fantastic work by SilverFern Agri and volunteers.

• Thanks to Anglian Water, will add extra flood protection and a great feature to the Memorial Hall.

• Design for Sports and Social Club signed off, hydrogarden units ordered for installation end of February

• GreenBlue are designing roadside hydrogardens for the bottom of Vinegar Hill

• Target for all three project end of March

Alconbury Weston and other Ponds

• Alconbury Weston Pond site has been cleared by archaeologists for excavation to go ahead.

• When their report is signed off by District Council, pond excavation work may begin

• Target for this project, end of March

• Thanks to Anglian Water and Cambridgeshire County Council for supporting the next steps.

• We await the result of our DEFRA bid for funding for  9 more ponds in the catchment

A Partnership Agreement with Natural England is finalised. It will help to fund work with farms on soil  health and deeper roots that will contribute to flood prevention

The Brook Bank that had subsided on the Alconbury Village Green near Brookside has been partly filled by us (with EA permit exemption). It will be surfaced to the normal height with top-soil and appropriately re-seeded.

The removal of silt from upstream of the Heritage Bridge in Alconbury will occur during week commencing on Feb 20th weather and brook permitting.

All of the sediment traps are working including a replacement for the one which disappeared at the beginning of the month. We now have quite a number of soil samples. If you fancy a walk near Gidding or Winwick, let us know and we will give you some sample bags.

A number of additional sensors and a new LORAWAN gateway have been ordered and will be installed shortly. These were funded by the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation and Anglian Water. Daily use of the data has allowed us to determine the relationship between depth and flow. The peak flow during the flood in early January was about 16m3/s, almost exactly one Olympic swimming pool flows past every minute.

We have perfected a technique using AI to count useful soil fungi. These encourage the right sort of root growth.

The heavy rain at the beginning of January saw no indoor flooding in the Alconbury’s or Hamerton but it was exceptionally close. 1cm in the case of the lowest home.

EA Flood Alleviation scheme: No further news.

Contact us to volunteer at info@alconburybrookfloodgroup.uk

Donate if you can to www.justgiving.com/thealconburybrookfloodgroup