Half a year later, still no flood work at Keldholme (From Gazette & Herald)

Half a year later, still no flood work at Keldholme

A £17,000 scheme to improve ditches and drains to combat future flooding at the beauty spot hamlet of Keldholme near Kirkbymoorside, planned last January, still not been started.

Worried residents have been told that it is now hoped the work will be done before the autumn.

Peter Renshaw, divisional surveyor and engineer for North Yorkshire County Council's highways depot at Kirkbymoorside, said the work includes laying larger PVC pipes after tree roots were found to have got stuck fast in the existing drains and work is also planned on the Hutton-le-Hole road. While the works order had been placed with the county contracts department, it had not been started before the authority's new external contractors, RSC, took over.

RSC has asked for a priority list of works needed in the Ryedale area and Mr Renshaw said he had pin-pointed the Keldholme scheme as the number one scheme.

"I am trying to get a number of schemes into the programme," said Mr Renshaw.

One of the difficulties is that the same team which is currently doing road surfacing work is also responsible for doing the drainage scheme.

Other Ryedale schemes include the raising of the carriageway by 800mm between Howe Bridge and Malton bypass at a cost of £200,000, which should be completed by Christmas, and a drainage project at Wrelton which is due to be carried out in July and August.

David Summers, property manager for Ryedale District Council, said talks and inspections had taken place with landowners and farmers in the Keldholme area, but there had been no evidence of blocks to drainage systems. Landowners are required to maintain water courses on land within their ownership, he added.

Bryan Hughes, whose garden was flooded in three feet of water in just 20 minutes during the freak flood in October 2000, has been leading the campaign for action. He said the residents were becoming increasingly concerned because they feared another flood if action was not taken now to improve ditches and drains.

Gardens and paddocks at Keldholme were severely flooded during the freak flood.

An initial theory that the flooding was caused by Yorkshire Water's scheme of laying a mains water supply to Gillamoor has been ruled out following investigations.

The Environment Agency has said that such a flood was only likely to occur once every 300 years.

Mr Hughes said: "After six months, when we were told the work was being put in hand, we seem to be getting the runaround. We believed it was going to be carried out either late last year or early this year. We don't know where we stand. We have been very patient and forbearing but I think we have been put off for long enough. People are very concerned."

Updated: 11:36 Thursday, June 13, 2002