Storm Babet - flood updates here

19 October 2023

STORM BABET | Heavy rain here in the Derbyshire Dales throughout Friday and into Saturday resulted in partner agencies declaring a Major Incident in the county.

While the peak had moved away from the Derbyshire Dales down to Derby on Saturday morning - where severe flood warnings were in place - many local roads remained closed and are flood damaged, forcing the cancellation of our scheduled Matlock Bath Illuminations on both Saturday and Sunday 21 & 22 October.

Partner agencies, including your District Council and the emergency services, have been meeting several times daily to deal with the flooding event.

We met again twice on Sunday and the good news is that river levels in the Upper Derwent are coming down and the county-wide Major Incident status has been removed.

Darley Bridge was still closed as was the footbridge in our Matlock Hall Leys Park - a safety inspection request for the footbridge was due to happen on Monday.

Please note however that this is still a live incident south of our area. The A6 remained closed between Duffield and Milford on Sunday evening, as did the A52 in Derby. This reinforced our decision to cancel the weekend's Illuminations.

The big message is: continue to take care when out and about. Even roads that have reopened could be impacted by flood debris. Highways teams in particular remain stretched, so please be understanding of the extent of the clean-up work that will be required when we go into the recovery phase.

By Saturday evening, thankfully all Flood Warnings on rivers here in the Derbyshire Dales had been lifted.

Volunteer teams

Our volunteer staff teams distributed more than 2,500 sandbags across the district on Friday and into the early hours of Saturday to help protect properties under threat of floodwater. We also set up sandbag hubs in known hotspots, replenishing supplies despite facing challenging road conditions made worse by abandoned and queuing vehicles. We also staffed an emergency floodline number through the day and night.

The Environment Agency issued the first Flood Warning at 9.15am on Friday for our area (a higher status than a flood alert) on the Henmore Brook at Ashbourne. Flooding was expected for the area including Sturston Mill, Ashbourne town centre and Henmore Trading Estate.

Flood Warnings were then issued by the Environment Agency on:

River Wye at Litton Mill, Ashford in the Water, Wyebank and Milford Bakewell
River Derwent at Darley Dale, Baslow, Grindleford, Hathersage, Chatsworth, Calver, Churchtown and Northwood, including Harrison Way, Darley Bridge, Matlock Bath and Cromford
River Dove from Coldwall Bridge to Okeover, Norbury and Lower Ellastone and Doveridge and Sudbury
Rivers Wye and Derwent at Rowsley
Bradwell Brook
Henmore Brook, Ashbourne

See a list of major road closures on the County Council website.

It was thought possible that the Derwent Valley would receive a further surge, resulting in higher river levels, during the early hours of Saturday. The peak in Matlock passed at 01:30, with the peak on the Dove expected at around 03:00.

13 bends bakewell

Flooding at 13 Bends, Bakewell

Bin rounds were disrupted on Friday. Due to the weather conditions some rounds - and earlier missed bin collections - did not complete . We were trying to recover any missed round collections over the weekend, but the catch-up could well run into early next week.

Up to 100mm of rain was forecast to fall in the 18 hours from Friday morning.

Some forecasts anticipated river levels on the Derwent could be as high as the serious floods in November 2019 and February 2022.

That's why we urged residents and businesses in at risk areas to prepare.

Please note that although we always have teams of staff volunteers ready to work through the day and night to help vulnerable residents, local authorities have no legal obligation to provide assistance during flooding situations - it is the home/business owner's responsibility to protect your own property.

So while we always try to help the most vulnerable with sandbags and support, we don't have the stocks and resources to help everyone.