Perry’s Purley Pool: flooding in the underpass at Purley Cross has become familiar sight every time there is heavy rainfall. But at least the Croydon Mayor has delivered on one of his election promises
The impact of Sunday night’s heavy rain, when a month’s average rainfall was deposited over parts of London and the south-east in little more than a couple of hours, is still being felt across the area, with a forecast of more rain to come this week.
At the weekend, the Met Office was predicting the heaviest downpours in the Midlands and to the north of the capital, but the deluge came sufficiently far south that the River Wandle has flooded in several places, including causing damage to at least a dozen homes in Hackbridge.
It was around 3am on Monday that the Wandle’s banks burst and Mullards Close was flooded.
High tide mark: the damp marks on the wall of buildings in Mullards Close show how water rose around 8in overnight
The Mullard Close homes were built recently, on a floodplain.
The Wandle riverbanks by the Mullards Close estate are very low and the river’s flow was also blocked by fallen trees and 30metres of dense shrubbery growing in the river.
Water marks on the buildings’ brickwork show that the water had risen to around 8in.
By yesterday afternoon, the water level after the flood had subsided was still only inches below the top of the riverbank.
“It seems there is no mechanism for keeping the river clear except by volunteers which must be very hit-and-miss,” one local told Inside Sutton.
“Environment Agency inspections of the river have become rarer, probably due to appalling cutbacks.”
Jim Duffy spent a few hours chatting with residents of Mullards Close and the site supervisor of the Goat Bridge weir construction site just downstream.
“There’s debris including downed trees along the river next to the Goat Bridge weir site,” Duffy said.
“There’s a length of very dense bushes and vegetation growing in the river along Buckhurst Avenue which also seems to be part of the cause of the flood.
Floodplain: the River Wandle passes Mullard Close, Watercress Park on to to Goat Road Bridge
“At least a dozen flats were flooded. Electricity is off in part of one block of flats. I spoke with some residents as they carried their ruined carpets out of their homes. It seems flooring will need replacing as well as furniture.” It is understood that this is not the first flood incident to affect Mullards Close, where there was a flood three months ago, though it caused no damage then.
“I’m told that the Environment Agency, the police and the fire service all came [on Sunday] night. The EA officer apparently said the flooding was probably caused by some blockage.
“It’s unfortunate that millions are spent on big river projects but then no one takes care of the day-to-day maintenance of the river.”
Duffy has asked Sutton Council to ensure that “these congested areas of the river be cleared as a matter of urgency”.
At Goats Bridge, a weir is being removed in a £1million budget public project. “A similar weir removal scheme at Wilderness Island might cause even more flooding for residents down the river,” Duffy said.
Dammed nuisance: fallen trees and overgrown shrubbery have contributed to the Wandle’s flooding
“At least the weir is holding back some water. Without it, all the excess rainwater will just pour down the river, potentially at the expense of homeowners.”
The deluge has had other impacts, too.
Morden Hall Park was closed yesterday, and many of the footpaths around the National Trust-managed park, which has a wetlands area and numerous tributary streams for the Wandle, remain unpassable – including the path to the tram stop.
And Wimbledon football club has been dealt a cruel blow, having to postpone tonight’s League Cup tie at Plough Lane against Premier League giants Newcastle United after a massive sinkhole appeared in the pitch at their Cherry Red Records Stadium. The sinkhole is linked to the heavy rains.
The arena, on the site of the old Wimbledon dog track, was opened in November 2020, and is also the home to the London Broncos rugby league club.
Pitched problem: Wimbledon’s football pitch has been affected by a sinkhole
Wimbledon have ceded home advantage, and will play the cup tie at Newcastle’s ground, St James’ Park, on October 1.
Meanwhile, a fresh weather warning has been issued – bringing the potential for heavy rain, strong winds and the risk of yet more flooding.
The yellow warning is for the entire of Thursday, covering an area from Nottinghamshire to Northumberland.
The Environment Agency has issued flood warnings – the second highest alert level – across parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Kent and Somerset.
The agency has said further rainfall is expected over the next 12 hours on Tuesday which will keep river levels high.
This comes after parts of Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire saw more than 4in of rain in the last 48 hours. Woburn had 5.6in (142.8mm) recorded, more than twice the amount of its September average rainfall amount according to the Met Office.
Rail services have also been affected, disrupting services between Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Marylebone.
Read more: Fire Brigade issues safety warnings ahead of further flooding
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Must be slightly troubling that a Football Stadium opened less than four years ago can have a sinkhole on it’s pitch. Hope the appropritate structural inspections will be undertaken to ensure the safety of the Ground and the surrounding very developed area.
“The yellow warning is for the entire of Thursday, covering an area from Nottinghamshire to Northumberland.”
That is a long way north, so Croydon and Wandle valley should be unaffected ?!
Croydon and the Wandle Valley was supposed to be unaffected by Sunday night’s deluge… then what happened?
build on flood plains and not dredge rivers and drainage ditches .. what do you expect .
Dredging rivers just moves flood water downstream faster while destroying the local aquatic environment. “Slow the flow” is what’s needed, not ‘speed it up’.
In towns and cities, sustainable drainage systems or “SUDS” can help. Unfortunately Croydon Conservatives’ policy of encouraging and enabling people to turn front gardens into car parks means that land that used to soak up rain now floods streets whenever we have a deluge
Thanks Inside Croydon. The flood risk might be made worse by a scheme to remove one or both weirs at Wilderness Island just upstream from the homes that were flooded. A river expert tells me that weirs protect against flooding by moderating the river levels. Without the weirs a similar weather incident could make more floods likely. Meanwhile some flood protection measures like raising the riverbanks at Mullards Close and clearing the river of fallen trees and 34 metres of dense shrubbery are urgently needed.
Your river expert is misinformed. Careful planning and civil engineering based on experience means removing the weirs will not increase local flood risk but reduce it. The South East Rivers Trust estimate that the number of properties affected by a once in 20-year event would be cut by 95% and for a 50-year event the reduction would be 60%.
I wonder if South East Rivers Trust will rebuild the weirs if their numbers prove wrong?
Unfortunately their scheme to improve the Carshalton branch of the river was hardly a success with the shrunken channel largely blocked with debris and the banks so overgrown that the river is near invisible in many parts. Eighty trees had to be cut down for that particular project and one building suffered subsidence after the works.
The Biodiversity Officer acknowledging some of the problems suggested getting more volunteers out… Now it’s a second £1.34 million scheme to remove one or both weirs paid with public money which will diminish the main river to a stream with knock-on effects to residents living directly by the river. Most people moved to be next to the river.
Hold off on the sandbags! Arfur is a river expert expert! Weirs he been all these years
This academic article with diagrams shows how weir removal can increase river levels downstream. The author urges caution.
https://therivermanagementblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/the-geomorphic-impact-of-sluice-or-weir-removal/