The River Ock caused flooding today (Saturday), leading to the closure of the Tesco Extra store in Abingdon. The store’s car park and access roads were underwater. This is the second time the store has had to close due to flooding in 2024. This follows persistent rain during much of Thursday.
The people of Ladygrove Estate watched the water with concern yesterday and today, but the water did not go as high as it did during the January flood.
P.S. Tesco reopened on Sunday.
The first houses have appeared at the new development off Twelve Acre Drive. They can seen near the sales office.
The developers plan to build a total of 371 homes in this phase, ranging from 2 to 5 bedrooms, with prices from £399,950 to £699,950 (as seen on their website). There will also be pavilions and sports pitches.
Since the development is near the Radley Park Ditch (shown in the bottom right corner of the image above), the developers have submitted a flooding model as a follow up to their planning permission.
There have been concerns about flooding downstream from the development, near the Peachcroft basketball pitch. A meeting last week of residents and local councillors were given updates on the flooding on Appleford Drive, Rainbow Way, and Chilton Close, caused by the Radley Park Ditch.
I believe the issue is water backing up from the culvert gate at that point, which needs to be kept clear. (Last 3 pictures from 5th January 2024, the morning after the overnight flooding).
Good news for walkers in Abingdon! The Ock Valley Walk is dry enough to explore today (except maybe around Tesco).
The water looks calmer at St Helen’s Wharf. This morning, you could see a clear space between the water and the bridge’s iron arch.
At high tide on Saturday, part of the word ‘Bristol’, and houses in Abingdon were underwater.
The Abingdon Herald had a front-page article, on Wednesday, about the call for action by the environment agency (EA) on improving the town’s flood defences. Regarding this, I have two pieces on information in my inbox. Two schemes were being explored: a flood storage area west of the A34, and temporary flood barriers. An email from the EA from December 2018 said, ‘Since our last newsletter we have been continuing to develop the design for a flood storage area. Based on our more detailed design information we now know the cost of the flood storage area to be much greater than our earlier estimate. To justify continuing work to develop plans for a flood storage area our partnership would need to secure a large amount of additional funding from other partners and businesses. The partnership do not think we will realistically be able to find the required funding. This means that we are not able to continue developing plans for the flood storage area at this time.’ Partners included local councils and businesses.
They said,‘We are continuing our work to investigate options for Natural Flood Management which could help to reduce flooding in Abingdon. We have also identified where Temporary Flood Barriers could help reduce the impact of flooding for specific areas in Abingdon.’
There was a more recent update from the EA to the Tithe Farm and Ladygrove Newsletter in August 2023. It said, ‘We reviewed this plan following problems experienced with barriers in the Midlands. The result of the review was that we would be unable to erect it in time to prevent flooding. As a consequence, we withdrew the plan. This means that there won’t be any permanent structures or temporary barriers to protect you from the River Ock.’
This picture shows Rye Farm Carpark at sunrise today, where one car is stranded.
The water level at the Tesco Carpark was receding with the setting sun, but half of the area was underwater.
Water levels are going down in the rivers and surrounding fields. Abingdon’s roads are clear of flood water, but St Helen’s Wharf remains closed, waiting somebody official to remove the barriers.
The Margaret Brown Gardens also remained closed. The Geese were settling down this evening without passers-by to disturb them.
The road to recovery will be more challenging for residents whose homes were hit by the flooding. Stuck vehicles and waterlogged boats pose difficulties for others.