Officials recommend measures to prevent flooding in Wigan
The town was among areas in the North West affected by flooding following a New Year's Day storm
Wide-ranging measures have been recommended to reduce flood risk in three areas of Wigan in the wake of the New Year’s Day storm, which hit dozens of homes.
The study has been published by Wigan council in partnership with water company United Utilities as part of its legal duties as the lead flood authority.
Many of the recommendations fall to the local authority and UU themselves to take decisive action within the next 12 months.
Homes were evacuated in the early hours of January 1 when what experts described as a ‘double peak’ storm hit Greater Manchester.
The worst hit areas were Platt Bridge, where several feet of water flooded into Templeton Road with another area around Bickershaw Lane, Keats Way and Simpkin Street also affected.
Others included Lincoln Drive in Ashton-in-Makerfield, where 37 homes were submerged after Millingford Brook overtopped and local drains could not cope with surface water.
The report also details how homes in Bolton House Road, in Bickershaw village, were also flooded. One cause was identified as ‘historic flooding from a culverted watercourse,’ which has been ‘poorly maintained’ and is on private land owned by an unidentified company that is now insolvent.
Recommendations contained in the report say the council should identify the ownership of the watercourse and ‘ensure a significant maintenance regime is in place to reduce further risk’.
But the report also says property owners have a responsibility to look after their own properties, ‘including the risks of water entering it and causing damage’.
Possible measures put forward include flood barriers and automatically closing airbricks in walls
“Property flood resistance (PFR) can also be used within a building to minimise damage if internal flooding still occurs,” the report says.
“It is good practice for local residents to find out about any flood risk in the area, sign up for the Environment Agency’s free flood warnings/alerts where available and make a written plan of how they will respond to a flood situation. Business owners should also make a flood plan for their business.”
However, a string of recommendations has also been given to United Utilities and Wigan council.
The council is being advised to step up its annual highway gullies cleaning operations to a six-monthly cycle, and to identify projects for funding for people affected by internal flooding on Bolton House Road.
United Utilities is also being told to ‘maintain efficient operations of sewers’.
“An essential flood risk management duty is defined under the Water Industry Act 1991, which states that water and sewerage companies have a duty to provide, maintain and operate systems of public sewers and works for the purpose of effectively draining an area,” the report says.
In Ashton-in-Makerfield, UU has been told it should install a flap valve to prevent floodwater backing up along the system and engulfing manholes and gullies on Lincoln Drive, when the sewer become submerged.
In the same location, Wigan council should also investigate the condition of the culverted watercourse to the west of Lincoln Drive and ‘review its contribution to the flooding’.
“The owner should be identified,” the report goes on. “This is necessary to improve its condition and to install a flap valve at the outfall of the watercourse into Millingford Brook.”
“Wigan council, UU and the Environment Agency should work in partnership to undertake a feasibility study to explore potential actions for alleviating flood risk in the Lincoln Drive area, by the summer of 2026.”
All the areas mentioned in the report have experienced prior events of flooding within the last 25 years.
But of the January 1 flood, the report goes on: “The event has caused significant disruption to the lives of the residents that were flooded.
“Financial losses have been incurred, with concerns raised about the impact of flooding on property values. The flooding caused damage and contamination of material goods, with residents also noting the irreplaceability of some of the belongings lost. Some explained that they are not eligible for insurance.”
In Platt Bridge, the report said there were no formal flood defences along Hey Brook, Brookside Brook or the Brookside Brook drain.
Environmental company JBA Consulting, which undertook the bulk of the report, said that there was evidence of obstructions as a result of fly-tipping in the water, but ‘given the volume of rainfall, the reduction in channel volume is unlikely to have had a considerable impact on the water overtopping the channel’.
The report goes on: “Energy bills also increased for some residents, due to the power required for dehumidifiers and heaters to dry their properties.
“A few residents commented on how the flooding would adversely affect their insurance premiums and property values.
“Dealing with the aftermath of the flood has also required some residents to take time off work. All the residents who responded to our questionnaire reported having to move to temporary accommodation.
“The flood event has caused immense stress and has compromised the wellbeing and mental health of those impacted.”