Alconbury Brook Flood Group report for February 2022

A little more volunteer work has been done near the ford in Alconbury Weston. Volunteer work will be limited from mid-March because fish spawning and water birds nesting.

The brook is running too fast at the moment, but we hope to have one more volunteer event before early March. We now have permits to remove silt from where road drains are depositing sand and silt into the brook. Also work on the gardens of High Street properties in Alconbury and Alconbury Weston.

We have a small yellow boat for work in the brook when safe!

Generally we are very positive about the work done by the EA since Christmas particularly in Alconbury Weston and downstream of the A1 flyover. Some debris still to collect. The flood group has volunteered to do this but we await a reply. Between Polecat Lane and Alconbury Weston there is still some work to do, but volunteers could do this.

The Flood Group committee have met and agreed to hold an AGM in May, which will be open to volunteers and the community generally.

On behalf of the Alconbury communities and having consulted the PCs, the Flood Group have signed off the new improved brook CCTV agreement with the EA.

Progress is being made with the Flood Alleviation modelling. On request from the EA the Flood Group have consulted the PCs with regard to (statutory) access arrangements for a future public consultation. The main issue will be ensuring everyone, including those without internet access, is aware and people in the communities with special needs will be able to participate if they wish.

A disappointment has been that LENs, who had been very positive about funding all of our upstream NFM, have withdrawn their offer. They had wrongly assumed that some of the land was in Northamptonshire. As Cambridgeshire does not subscribe to LENS, we do not qualify for financial assistance from LENS. Much effort has been spent this month looking at alternatives to overcome this problem. We are seeking alternative sources of funding. Charles Krolik-Root has organised a meeting in early March with Think Communities to assist with this.

Before seeking funding elsewhere, we have had to ask landowners to ask the RPA to calculate any losses that may occur as a result of us installing NFM. This is likely to be quite small, but we are committed to ensuring farmers will not lose out. We now have potential projects on 4 farms and we hope to have feedback through the landowners from the RPA shortly.

Through countryside stewardship we have acquired free ADAS hydrology/NFM consultancy which will enable us to understand the optimum positions (on watercourses) for the projects we have agreed. We were pleased that 3 landowners have authorised us to have this work done. Reporting will occur in May/June which is in good time for construction in the summer/autumn. In the meantime, further design work has been done.

We remain vigilant. Some very high rainfalls have occurred previously in March and April. Our measurements suggest the soil is now full. We are measuring flow at Alconbury. There appears to be a small flow improvement, but our comparison may not be like for like.