The Flood Hub

Over New Year, significant rainfall led to the Environment Agency issuing 55 flood warnings and alerts across Greater Manchester. The region saw 70 millimetres of rain fall in 18 hours and the River Mersey recorded its highest ever levels. Unfortunately, this led to significant flooding to properties throughout the upper Mersey catchment and the EA’s hearts go out to all those affected. Approximately 11,974 properties were protected by flood defences in Greater Manchester, while sadly the EA know over 200 were flooded.

Reducing flood risk is the Environment Agency’s top priority and all flood defences in the area, such as the Didsbury and Sale flood storage reservoirs, were operated by the Environment Agency (as is standard practice) to reduce flood risks.

Due to the sheer volume of rainfall and scale of the consequential flooding, the design standard for flood defences was exceeded in some places, leading to overtopping. This also caused the collapse of some flood embankments.

Embankment collapse upstream of Ford Lane, Didsbury. Image: Environment Agency

A number of properties, infrastructure, and amenities are at a reduced level of protection whilst there are breaches in the flood embankments. Emergency works have started and described below will provide temporary mitigation until permanent repairs are made.

The EA immediately amended flood warning thresholds to ensure people at risk of flooding are warned appropriately. This gives people valuable time to act and stay safe when flooding is likely.

Environment Agency officers have pumped water from Didsbury Flood Storage Reservoir and other surrounding flood plains, to reduce water levels and allow recovery works to take place.

The EA are also carrying out rapid inspections to all flood defences to ensure the extent of damage is fully understood, whilst planning emergency repair works. This has included drone footage, visual inspections and surveying. In areas of concern, multiple footpath closure signs have been put up to warn the public.

Environment Agency officers are working with partner organisations through the Local Resilience Forum.

Working with contractors, emergency works along the river Mersey at Didsbury started on14th January.

The emergency works have involved the use of a helicopter to form temporary protection to the locations where embankments have collapsed.  This work is now complete.  Detailed designs are now being undertaken to determine the most appropriate permanent fix.

At Northenden weir, bags which the EA had placed last November to protect the weir, were moved by the floods.  These have now been replaced.

May 2025

Repair at the Rugby club (Didsbury sports ground)

The design is in the final stages of being completed, it will then be passed onto the EA’s contractor to carry out the repairs, the design has included strengthening of the embankment along the entire 400m damaged section. This will involve regrading the existing slope from a 1:1.5 to a more stable 1:4 gradient. In addition, higher-quality materials will be used in the reconstruction to provide a more secure and resilient embankment, reducing the risk of future damage.

Construction Start: Early Summer

Finish: Late Autumn

Repair at Northenden Golf Club

The design for the repairs at Northenden Golf Club has been completed and is currently with the EA’s contractor for scheduling. The repair will make use of the existing protective bags, previously placed during the helicopter operations, as the core structural support. The embankment will then be rebuilt around this core to match the existing profile of the surrounding area.

Repairs Britannia Hotel

The design is in the final stages of being completed and then will be passed onto the EA’s contractor to carry out the repairs. The protective bags will be removed, and benching works will be carried out on the failed embankment to tie it into the existing embankment completing the repair.

Construction Start: Early Summer

Finish: Late Autumn

January - April 2025

So that the EA can complete the next stage of the repairs, the Environment Agency (EA) will need to remove a number of trees upstream of Simon’s Bridge, in the vicinity of the rugby pitches.  This will take place during February, before bird nesting season begins.  Once this work is complete, the EA can begin the main phase of more permanent repair work.  This will involve longer-term repairs to Didsbury Flood Storage Reservoir embankments and other areas of damage along the Mersey.

The EA will have several different contracts running at the same time, so that they can complete this work as quickly as possible with the aim to be complete in key areas ready for next winter.

The River Mersey South Manchester Strategy is currently reviewing how flood risk in this area is managed effectively into the future. This will take several years to implement; therefore the EA must intervene now to ensure the existing flood defences are effective at reducing flood risk. For further information on the River Mersey South Manchester Strategy please visit the following page https://thefloodhub.co.uk/merseysouthmanchesterstrategy/

The Environment Agency will keep this page up to date to keep communities informed.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact the Environment Agency’s local flood resilience team at [email protected]