Flood Update
How Much Protection will we get?
The County Council has released more details about its Flood Alleviation Scheme. It combines traditional engineering solutions with surface water management schemes to deliver increased levels of protection throughout Southwell.
Southwell Flood Forum must be congratulated for the hard work they have done, liaising with the County Council and helping with the technical aspects of the scheme.
Protection Level Set
Costing nearly £5million, the scheme is based on levels of flooding likely to occur once every 75 years. However the flooding of 250 homes five years ago was considerably worse than that.
Based on this, many homes will be given increased protection at the individual property level. The scheme has been outsourced to Via East Midlands to deliver. Site work should start next year with completion by March 2021.
Seeking Further Information
Although further updates are promised, Liberal Democrat Councillors are seeking further information on key issues:-
● How resilient will the individual property protection measures be to torrential conditions such as occurred in 2013?
● How will raised kerbs and new road cambers to retain water on the roads work alongside driveways and dropped kerbs for pushchairs and mobility scooters?
● What are the implications to flood risk of further housing development in Southwell?
● Once the scheme design is finished what are the County Council plans to get feedback, particularly from residents affected by flooding?
By-Pass Pipe Reconsidered
The last Focus reported that in 1994 the District Council granted approval for development on Halam Road on condition that a temporary balancing pond would be constructed in Norwood Park. The pond would be coupled to a new pipe taking water directly to the River Greet to reduce flood risk from Dudley Doy Road, through Glenfields and down to Lower Kirklington Road. The pipe was never completed.
With further development planned along Halam Road, the County Council and Southwell Flood Forum are now reconsidering the original by-pass pipe scheme to deal with the higher run off rate from developed land. However, this is not part of the present scheme.
Local Election Results May 2023
A spectacular set of elections both nationally and locally here in Newark and Sherwood!
Overall Lib Dem gains were 405 nationally, which posed a problem for Sky News, whose swingometer apparently was not able to contemplate a set of gains of this magnitude. We exceeded 'Exceeded Expectations'!
Our local gains at the district level saw the addition of our third District Councillor with the victory of Keith Melton in Trent Ward. We also kept 2 of 3 councillors for Southwell, now Karen Roberts and Peter Harris. We were encouraged to see the increase in our share of votes in other seats where we were able to field candidtes. Congratulations to everyone.
We had a very good performance in Southwell Town Council, gaining 10 of the 14 seats for which there were candidates, with 6 of these won in elections and 4 being uncontested. Two Conservatives, one Labour candidate and one Independent were also successful. One place on the council remains to be appointed to.
The Conservatives had a terrible set of district and parish elections, losing about half of their district councillors and many PCs. The final DC result was Conservative 14, Labour 11, Independents 11 (8 for Independents for Newark and 3 for other Independents) and Lib Dems 3. Discussions will take place for some time on the composition of the new administration, which is unlikely to include Conservatives for the first time since 2007.
On behalf of the executive, we are extremely grateful to everyone who stood as candidates, as well as everyone who performed the various roles which were necessary for the campaigns. We are a small party and many of you worked very hard.
We are very grateful for their past work to councillors who have stood down at this election, including Peter Scorer and Stuart Thompstone. Malcolm Brock has stood down from the District, though continues to serve on Southwell TC.
We welcome new members to the party, who were motivated by this campaign. This phenomenon was particularly marked in Trent Ward. Upton support has to be singled out, evidenced for anyone who drove through, by the huge number of LD stakeboards and posters.
Philip Barron
Chair, Newark Liberal Democrats
7 May 2023