Alconbury Brook Flood Group Bulletin May 2024

Alconbury Weston Storage and Wildlife Pond:

• Work on the pond itself is complete.

• Final landscaping and some spoil removal will be done in July.

• Inlet and outlet culverts and a small dam in the adjacent ditch are still under construction.

• Ultimately flow out of the pond will be   possible to control remotely using our telemetry system.

• An interpretation board and safety equipment will be added during the summer.

• We are very grateful to Evo-Air, an Alconbury based commercial drone company for producing a wonderful record of the construction.(the video will be shown at the AGM on May).

• We are also very grateful to Anglian Water, Cambridgeshire County Council and the Baker Family for making the project possible.

Flood Alleviation Scheme.  We have received an update from the EA team working on option feasibility. (Our additions in italics.)

JBA (the modelling company evaluating costs and benefits)  are continuing to progress the options modelling and will be providing outputs from other options in the coming months.(they have worked through and reported on one option, evaluation of future options should now be quicker).

• Thus far, outputs from the Flood Defence (walls or demoutables) (both villages) option have been provided:

• From an initial assessment, the estimated cost of flood defences outweighs the benefits associated with the option and is therefore unlikely to be viable.

• Further to this, flood defence heights in Alconbury Weston will likely need to be in the order of 2-3 metres in height, which makes the option impractical.

• Defences in Alconbury would not need to be as high (1-2 metres) and the option has a better cost benefit ratio, though the cost still outweighs the benefit.

Soil Science Our first DNA results for a field at Cowpasture Farm are in.

The purpose of this work is to find out if groups of soil microbes assist soil rain infiltration and carbon storage.

The analysis is ongoing but fascinating since it reveals past and present plant DNA.

It looks like an ancient type of wheat was grown on the field and possibly grape vines.

Soil Mentor ap. 5 farms are using the ap which enables recording and analysis of soil health data.

The farms are currently adding the fields they want to monitor to the ap. (many thanks to them).

Farm Walk No 1

Out first farm walk (funded by Natural England) is scheduled for June 12th. The soil experiments and hands on opportunities to do soil measurements will be included plus a visit to a restored pond (thanks to the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants).

All recipients of this bulletin are welcome and the invitation is attached. Places are limited so please respond quickly. There will be 2 other walks later in the summer. Thanks for this too to T H Branson.

Telemetry 14 soil moisture sensors are prepared of which 8 are deployed either on Cowpasture Farm or Alconbury Allotments. They are already generating data about soil rain capacity.

Downstream Group The group has a draft report following a walk from the Holiday Inn Brampton to Garkies Sluice (where Alconbury Brook joins the Ouse) Various issues arose from this review. The group will be meeting at the racecourse later in June.

Flood Group AGM 2024. Please attend our AGM at 7.00p.m. on May 31st at the Memorial Hall. We will provide and update on our work over the last year. There will be a chance to ask questions and make suggestions. Look forward to seeing you there!!

Contact us to volunteer at info@alconburybrookfloodgroup.uk

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