Dry pond will help protect homes from flash-flooding

The scheme should mean that householders struggling to insurance their homes following floods in 2007 will be able to get cover.
West Berkshire Council has submitted a planning application to build an attenuation pond at St Gabriel’s Farm, between Cold Ash Hill and Little Copse, north of Southend.
Attenuation ponds, or dry ponds, are designed to prevent flooding by storing excess rain water, and allowing it to flow into the sewers at a controlled rate.
The district council principal engineer, Stuart Clark, said that the pond had been designed to offer flood protection for up to 131 residential properties in Cold Ash and Thatcham.
He said: “This detention basin is the first of a three-phase flood alleviation scheme at Cold Ash Hill, which will provide a level of protection up to a 1-in-100-year storm.
“However, this phase has stand-alone benefits and will significantly reduce flood risk in the north and central part of Thatcham.
“Once the scheme is completed, residents in the area should have little difficulty in insuring their property against flooding.”
It has been estimated that the total construction cost will be about £700,000, with the majority of the funding coming from a government grant.
However, external contributions have been received from Thatcham Town Council (£40,000), Cold Ash Parish Council (£5,000) and West Berkshire Council has match funded these contributions.
Town councillor Lee Dillon, a member of the Thatcham Flood Forum, said that the town council had always taken a proactive approach since the floods in 2007, including setting up the surface water management plan.
He said: “In that respect, it was also right that we contributed financially to help mitigate floods like 2007 happening again.
“Although the scheme is in Cold Ash, it will help protect houses within Thatcham because it’s uphill and it will capture water run-off and slow the water coming into the town.”
In 2007, more than 1,100 homes in the area were affected by flash-flooding following a storm.
As part of the Thatcham surface water management plan, completed in 2010, West Berkshire Council’s work on flood prevention in the area will include building a number of these detention basins in the town.
Mr Clark added: “These include detention basins at Tull Way, off Cold Ash Hill (in phase two), Dunston Park and Dunstan Green.”
A decision on the first basin is expected from West Berkshire Council by the end of December.