The local Authority, (Eden District Council) were offering a flood resilience grant of £5000 to each property that was victim to the December 2015 flooding. To receive this grant, the house holders were asked to pledge a specific part of their property on which they intend to spend their grant money as device for flood resilience, preventing flood water entering their property.
The flood action group were strenuously trying to encourage these households to pool their valuable grant money into the unsustainable project on the Gillcambon corner, which graciously, Eden District Council applied untenable conditions, in turn knocking this unsustainable pooled scheme on the head once and for all.
The householders could then rightfully have a free hand to use this valuable resilience grant payout on their own property, in turn contributing towards a permanent asset value.
There are some members of the "flood action group" who still refuse to believe that the Caldew defence bank, (shown here) actually played any major part of the flooding of MILLHOUSE
during the crescendo of storm Desmond, and are quite arrogantly disputing eye witnesses, and the laid out proof on the extensively researched photo survey page of this website.
Perhaps they think "the debris on water lines were deliberately hand placed to fool us all" or "the photos have been doctored in some way" or "perhaps these individuals should have gone to Specsavers"
These self assigned individuals are very dangerous to the village.
The non-urgent work and quite un-necessary big spend has been completed to the Gillcambon corner. Sadly the true epicenter route cause of the blocked overflow path for the low capacity bridge, its rectification is apparently still awaiting the drawing board stage.
It is now absolutely crucial that the associated blocked overflow path for the low capacity bridge be given immediate priority to prevent a dramatic re-occurrence of the massive overflow during storm Desmond.
Most of the victim house holders will admit that the main 10 minute surge of flood water entered from the rear of their properties rather than from the front road side, which clearly indicates that the dominant source was indeed the Caldew, NOT the comparable trickle down the road from the Gillcambon. ___________________
Philippa, and Anthony Metcalfe, NOT being village residents, and NOT having witnessed the sequence of any of the Millhouse flooding events first hand yourselves, sadly you have been seriously misguided and ill-advised by individuals who have obviously not witnessed, studied, or are unwilling/unable to reveal the true enormity of the "whole", "real" flooding events which MILLHOUSE
endured in Dec. 2015, and many times previous. Despite what you apparently have been falsely told, MILLHOUSE
was NOT
lagooned in the short space of 10 minutes by a mere 3" deep trickle down the road from the Gillcambon,
(probably the only sizable torrent that some people witnessed that evening).
False embedded information such as this, can very seriously endanger the village, rather than help it. Being completely off track, obviously out of touch with reality, why have you involved the BBC with this now lime-lighted, dramatized complete fabrication, without being fully aware of the accurate first-hand on-the-job true facts yourselves?
The sad fact resulting from the above mentioned implications is that the limelight was then diverted away from the real epicentre route cause, which was thrown on a back burner, but still requires urgent attention, and is ripe to provide a reoccurrence. Valuable time and initial enthusiasm has now been lost.
And the most significant sad fact that has emerged from these actions is that some individual victim households have now missed out on credible resilience grants, which could have been pledged and integrated during the actual remedial renovation work to their own property. In most cases the work was already carried out, therefore too late was the cry. ___________________
There is already at least one property in MILLHOUSE
which is in grave danger of dying, as it has been flooded so many times in the past decade, but never from the Gillcambon, predominantly from the River Caldew, but also from the result of blocked drains and gutters in the fields above Salter Lonning. This house has become virtually un-insurable and un-marketable, which could have been avoided with correct decisions by past and present officials of authority. We do need prompt positive action to prevent the demise of other flood victim properties that realistically would be inadvertently placed in this danger zone if it were to happen again.
We do have the abillity to rectify this situation, right now, very economically, by a credible project that would simply reinstate the functionality of the infrastructure that was, and still is in place, which prevented the village from flooding between the early 1970's and 2005.
But to acheive this, it requires the complete unity of all the victims, and other villagers, which it would appear is not yet in place. There are still individuals with conflicting opinions of how the flood water arrived in the village.
All the other inventive projects that have been suggested are totally un-credible, un-workable and un-practical, with no realistic benefit to any one village household. The valuable pooled "Resilience Grant Money" that the victims were being encouraged to generously hand over, would have just disappeared down a "BIG Black Hole". __________________________________________
It would now seem that "if you have attended a private school, college or university to receive refined education", achieving an academic degree, graduation or diploma, you then "automatically qualify" to make the crucial authoritative decisions for the welfare and sustainability of MILLHOUSE.
But, apparently with "only" 6 decades, (60 years) of residential and very hands-on practical "historic experience" of previous MILLHOUSE
floods and the installation of preventative infrastructures, you lack the necessary grade of brain power to assess why MILLHOUSE
has flooded at an untenable frequency of every 3 to 4 years, on 4 occasions to date, since 2005.
"This website will inevitably prove them very wrong, and their decisions to be totally unviable", sadly but probably at the expense of the village being flooded yet again, potentially this year.
_________________________
The sooner the original overflow path for the river Caldew bridge is reinstated, the sooner the properties in MILLHOUSE
will actually become desirable and marketable, (as they used to be).
For the sake of the inhabitant's future welfare and the crucial sustainability of property value/demand, this website has gone to great lengths to demonstrate in detail how the village of MILLHOUSE
has been inadvertently reintroduced to regular flooding from the river Caldew, undoubtedly caused by rapid multiplying stacking behind the low capacity bridge, inflamed by inadvertent significant man made changes on the west bank in 2003.
This website uniquely demonstrates via an intricate photo Survey, the recently reintroduced flooding phenomenon to MILLHOUSE
:
The quite unique photo survey was carried out soon after the storm Desmond flooding event, with the full intentions of it being a vital aid to provide realistic information to the Environment Agency, to enable a necessary fast-trac remedial plan to be promptly put in to action.
To date, NO such (credible) plan has been instigated.
The reintroduced flooding routine is completely reversible, with a very logical common sense credible
rectification to the inadvertent man made changes.
The reintroduced flooding routine commenced in 2005, after a break of more than 40 years. MILLHOUSE
enjoyed a blissful Holiday from river orientated flooding, onwards from the completion of the long awaited construction of the village flood defense bank in the 1960's. It was during this period of 40 years when most of the recent flood victim residents of
MILLHOUSE
bought their homes at a then sustainable market value. The January 2005 flood event was a rude awakening, when unprecedented stacking was experienced behind the 110 year old single arch low capacity bridge, (Funnel/Dam).
3 more repetition flooding events have since occurred, undoubtably due to the incapability of the low capacity bridge, now deprived of its overflow bypass by the 2003 man made changes:
November 2009,
June 2012,
and storm Desmond December 2015.
Until the recommended logical credible remedy is carried out to rectify the low capacity bridge, (now deprived of it's original overflow path) the vulnerable properties of MILLHOUSE
have an unsustainable flood resilience.
The realistic facts are that the vulnerable properties of
MILLHOUSE
will be flooded once again during the crescendo of the next extreme storm if no logical action is taken to rectify the serious problem of the low capacity bridge.
___________________
We do welcome you to offer your views about the 4 reintroduced flooding events within the space of a decade which MILLHOUSE
has endured since 2005.
(a) Is this phenomenon of 4 repetitive flooding events, and the 2003 blockage of the bridge overflow path just coincidence?
(b) Can global warming be to blame for the 4 flooding events?
(c) Are extreme storms more severe than they used to be?
(d) Is the capacity of the MILLHOUSE
single arch bridge realistically
large enough for the river Caldew in full spate during an extreme storm?
(e) Has the repetitive flooding phenomenon increased or decreased the value and demand of properties in MILLHOUSE
and the associated community post code?
(f) Are you willing to offer support towards a united front to push for a logical common sense remedy to get the repetitive flooding phenomenon rectified permanently?
(g) Are you willing to just sit back & take your chances that it may not happen again?
(h) Would you like the property values/demand in MILLHOUSE
to become more sustainable?
If there is any individual who is critical of the presentation of the flood oriented pages of this website, please we do welcome them to compile an alternative presentation (in detail) demonstrating a different credible opinion of how MILLHOUSE
flooded during the crescendo of storm Desmond, and also include the 3 major flooding events prior to Storm Desmond.
But do please remember that the entire dialogue and unique flood aftermath images on this website are protected strictly by copyright.