The man in charge of National Highways in the East of England has rejected calls the A421 flooding is a “national disgrace” after comments were made about the flood clearup at a public meeting.
Central Bedfordshire Councillor Sue Clark (Conservative, Cranfield and Marston Moretaine) was speaking at a public meeting earlier this week (2 October) attended by villagers from Cranfield, Marston Moretaine, and Lower Shelton who spoke about how flooding has affected them.
Speaking specifically about the A421, which has been closed at Marston Moretaine since 22 September, Cllr Clark said: “Nobody can think of it as anything other than a national disgrace.
“The only way they can extract the water is by tanker, they’re using a fleet of tankers and they are transporting the water into other balancing ponds or other streams that are not at capacity.
“They are using a mains drain in Salford, they are using somewhere in Wixams, using somewhere else in the industrial state in Bedford. They have looked as far away as Luton for places to take the water to.”
She also added that she believes “it is going to be weeks before they syphon that water out”.
However, when the Bedford Independent visited the site just a few days later (4 October) progress had sped up thanks to dry weather and high-volume pumps moving water into nearby brooks and balancing ponds.
Images today have also shown that water on the road is now just a foot deep, having been eight feet deep at its peak.
Weather hampered efforts
But Martin Fellows, Regional director for National Highways in the East of England, speaking yesterday says they have been taking the clear-up very seriously and working as quickly as they can.
“We’ve had around 30 tankers, at their peak, at any one time pumping water away to a range of locations nearby. We’ve for the last few days had a high volume pump working on one end of the flood to take water nearly two miles away to Stewartby Lake.
“We’ve got a further high-volume pump which is about to start operating which will pump to another balancing pond. The reason we haven’t been able to use that until now is because the water lever in that balancing pond has been too high.”
Mr Fellows also says the wet weather hasn’t helped but now it has remained dry, the removal of water has increased in speed.
Read: No sign of A421 in Bedford reopening ‘anytime soon’ as work continues to clear floodwater
“If the weather stays reasonably fair we ought to be able to pump the water away towards the end of the weekend, beginning of next week.”
While there has been an estimated 60 million litres of water on the road, National Highways say they have removed 72 million litres prior to this weekend, due to rainfall topping up the flood.
Mr Fellows also says that once safety checks have been carried out, the road could reopen to some traffic by Wednesday (9 October).
“Once we get the water cleared and safety checks and repairs have been made, it may be that we will consider opening one lane in each direction.
“What we won’t do is wait until we’ve got the whole Rd sorted before we get at least some capacity back.”
Read: Flooded A421 could be open to traffic by Wednesday
Future-proofing A421
The Bedford Independent broke the news yesterday that the A421 could reopen by Wednesday and also asked Mr Fellows what National Highways will be doing to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
He recognised that while this was previously a ‘one in one hundred years’ event, rainfall of this kind could become more frequent.
“The pumping station that serves this particular location has never been underwater, it got completely and utterly submerged because of the sheer volume of water. So, we will need to look at that pumping station and it will need to be completely renewed and rebuilt,” he said.
“We’ll look at where we locate it and while there is logic in having a pumping station close to the road surface, which is which is important so it can pump the water away, we’ll need to consider whether or not there’s an alternative location for some temporary pumps.
“The permanent pumping station will take some time to repair, but we’ll put some temporary measures in place to ensure that we can still take the water away.
“I can’t control the weather, but what I can control is what measures we can put in place to at least mitigate the impact if something similar happens again.”
Cllr Clark has also urged everyone affected by flooding to tell their local councils.
“The reason for doing that is to help [councils] to lobby the government for money and they will need all the evidence they can get, to put it bluntly,” she said.
You can report flooding and how it has affected you to the following numbers,
- If you live in Bedford Borough, call Bedford Borough Council on 01234 267 422.
- If you live in Central Bedfordshire, call Central Bedfordshire Council on 0300 300 8500.
Additional reporting by John Guinn,
Local Democracy Reporter
