The River Ock and the associated Sandford Brook again burst their banks. Flooding was avoided in many homes in South Abingdon in Oxfordshire, England, thanks to the natural floodplains. Although it was a worrying time for Abingdon residents living close to the Ock, the Tesco superstore on Marcham Road was most seriously affected. It closed when the entire car park and access roads were flooded. Future floods will also affect the Premier Inn and could cause its evacuation.
The River Ock flood waters have gone down. The first three pictures picture were on Sunday.
Here is the scene today on the Ock Valley Walk, Monday.
There is some damage to pathways and trees.
Malcolm Moor of the South Abingdon Floodplain Action Group wrote to me to say, ‘Since the Abingdon Tesco Superstore opened in 1982 it has been one of Tesco’s most lucrative stores nationally. As well as contributing to the local economy, the massive footprint of the store and its car park in the floodplain of the River Ock have contributed to the severity of flooding in Abingdon on a number of occasions, so perhaps it is now time for Tesco to make a significant financial contribution to the Environment Agency to help in implementing effective flood alleviation measures for the town that has contributed so much to Tesco’s profits. To worsen the Abingdon flood situation, the Premier Inn has now also been built in the Ock floodplain, so a contribution to flood mitigation measures from the Whitbread and Hilton Groups would also be welcome to demonstrate their civic responsibility.’
People/companies are given planning permission to build on floodplains. We have just got to be thankful that nothing has been built on the football fields on the other side of the river.
Getting planning permission does not absolve any company from taking responsibility for their actions. Building on the flood plain is damaging the proprerties of individuals who will struggle to get insurance after this.
It could be worse, it could always be worse, but it could be better. I don’t know why that isn’t desireable.
Who passed the planning permissions for the Marcham Tesco and the Premier Inn?
The Tesco superstore was approved by VWHDC in November 1981 (P81/V0011) – several earlier attempts from 1979 onwards had been rejected. The hotel was approved in 2019 (P19/V3114): the officers’ report discusses the flood risk at some length (also, interestingly, why this was a more suitable site than the Upper Reaches one).
Thank you Hester for this historic planning reference – the planning application for the Tesco store was “called in” by the Secretary of State and dealt with at a major public inquiry (together with 4 other sites around Oxford) between Dec 1979 and Jan 1980. The Govt Planning Inspector’s report can be read in “Correspondence bundles 5 and 6” – page 2 of bundle 6 says “I am satisfied that the detailed alterations to the site levels….to meet the requirements of the Water Authority would enable the operation and maintenance of the store to be carried out….without risk of flooding or pollution in the town”. Clearly we are having more frequent extreme rainfall events than was anticipated in 1980 !
The Hilton Group will have nothing to do with the Garden Inn as the name is simply franchised to the owners, which appear to be Abingdon Lodge Hotel Ltd. Most Hilton branded hotels are franchises.
I think if blame is to be apportioned to anyone it should be applied to the local authority as they approved planning applications for building on the flood plain in the first place.
Like many other things in this town and surrounding area their poor and bad decisions affect everyone.
It’s not just ‘our’ floodplain that causes the issue. Other developers further upstream build on the plain in wastage and grove putting in measures to stop their developments flooding – pushing the problem on
Thank you, Hester. It begs the question whether VWHDC is ‘fit for purpose’ when it comes to planning permissions … even on the most basic criterion such as identifying a flood plain.
I can’t think that the Upper Reaches would be anywhere near as attractive to businesses who rely on their customers to travel and park as just off the Marcham Road junction. For Tescos it opened up Abingdon’s ‘western hinterland’. and for Hilton the site is almost as good for both Didcot and Oxford as it is for Abingdon.
Another knock-on consequence of building on the floodplains is the severe erosion to the bank of the River Ock. I have a garden that backs onto the Ock walk. I’ve measured severe erosion of some three inches between November 2023 and April 2024. The river is constantly near the top of the bank and fast flowing, cutting through mud and stone and exposing the roots of trees on the bank, weakening their tenure to the point that I expect trees to fall in a few years time.