The Flood Hub

Caton Road in Lancaster has a long history of heavy industry. The area was once home to the Morecambe to Settle railway line known as the Little North Western Railway. This included the Green Ayre station by Skerton Bridge.

Over the years numerous businesses have occupied the site: a munitions factory, a power station, chemical works, and paper mills. Today the area hosts approximately 100 businesses, split across four industrial sites.

The old railway line is now a cycle path that makes up part of the “Way of the Roses Cycle Route” from Morecambe to Bridlington.

 

The Caton Road industrial estate has a long history of flooding. Significant river flooding occurred throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. More recently the site suffered flooding in 1995 (costing £4 million in damages), 2002, 2005, 2015, 2017 and 2020 (unfortunately just after work had begun on site).

During Storm Desmond in December 2015, one month’s worth of rainfall fell in 24 hours. This heavy rainfall led to the Caton river gauge measuring the highest flow rate ever recorded on any English river (1,750 m3 per second). The flooding caused by Storm Desmond left around 60,000 homes without electricity which prompted an acceleration of work to upgrade the existing flood walls. Electricity North West were also prompted to invest in flood protection to their Caton road sub-station raising their infrastructure by 3m.

 

The completed Lancaster Flood Risk Management scheme provides 2.8km (1.7 miles) of enhanced flood walls. The flood walls give homes and businesses on both sides of the River Lune better flood protection. On the south bank, improvements to the flood defences have been made from the Holiday Inn (at Junction 34 of the M6 motorway) to Skerton Bridge. On the North Bank improvements include enhanced flood mitigation in the Aldrens Lane area.

The £12.1 million to build the scheme was funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Environment Agency, Local Levy from the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, and contributions from Lancaster City Council. The scheme also benefited from substantial private contributions (or “private contributions to the value of around £250,000” if you want to put a value to it) from businesses that significantly benefit that the defences.

The cycle path alongside the flood defences was closed during construction but has now been upgraded providing a newly tarmacked path alongside the upgraded flood walls on the south bank of the River Lune.

The project had to remove some trees to allow for construction but for every tree removed 3 new trees have been planted. As part of landscaping works 1,000 trees were planted ‘on-site’ and 2,000 trees ‘off-site’ at locations in the surrounding area including Ms Whalley’s Field, Tunnel Field and Newton Beck.

 

Caton Road Lancaster Flood Risk Management Scheme FAQs

Q. Are there any other flood risk management projects being undertaken?

A. There are investigations ongoing into surface water flooding in the city centre, Halton and around Cote Beck by Lancashire County Council. The Lune Rivers Trust is also undertaking a study looking to improve fish migration at Skerton Weir.

 

Q. Was dredging considered as an alternative option?

A. The bed of the River Lune is predominantly rock and the size of the Lune estuary means that the volume of material that would need to be dredged and the frequency of this to impact flooding would be very large and not cost effective. It is very expensive to do and must be done regularly.

 

Q. Will the scheme cause additional flooding to properties upstream?

A. The hydraulic modelling shows that the Caton Road, Lancaster, flood defence scheme would not have any major impact on flood levels up or downstream of the River Lune. No modelling can be precise, and will contain margins of error. The modelling for this scheme shows that, potentially, flood depths up or downstream could be slightly higher during a 1% (1 in 100) year event by up to a maximum of 40mm (4cm) at the most. However, the Environment Agency allow for a modelling tolerance and it may be that flood levels up or downstream could actually remain the same as they are now. They have also validated what the model shows with actual flood events in Lancaster in 2015 and 2017 for example for accuracy.

 

Q. Will surface water flooding be improved as a result of the scheme?

A. Short and intense rainfall events can sometimes exceed the capacity of highway drainage systems and cause short term surface water flooding on the road only to subside again as the rainfall recedes. The Environment Agency are working with Lancashire County Council Highways department to discuss the issues regarding drainage and surface water flooding in the area. They will keep you updated as these plans progress. They are also considering additional measures to attenuate surface water upstream to reduce the impact of flooding to Caton Road and properties/businesses that may remain at a residual risk to surface water flooding. This will be in the form of Natural interventions providing environmental and ecological enhancements.

 

 

Newsletters

• Caton Road, Lancaster Flood Risk Management Scheme Newsletter February 2021
• Caton Road, Lancaster Flood Risk Management Scheme Newsletter June 2020
• Caton Road, Lancaster Flood Risk Management Scheme Newsletter January 2020

 

To visit the Lancashire Partnership page, click here.

News

• Flood defences in Caton Road, Lancaster has completed on the anniversary of Storm Desmond (December 2020)