Warcop Parish Council has as one of its priorities further upstream flood prevention work to help reduce the chances of properties flooding again, as happened in December 2015 during Storm Desmond. After that storm, the Environment Agency worked on Crooks Beck, adjusting the profile of the far bank so that is captures more water. This has had some effect and many at risk properties have also improved their flood defences.
The Parish Council has lobbied for further work in the last five years and various Flood Risk Management reports were published and can be accessed on the Cumbria County Council Website or via this link:
Recently we have approached the Eden Rivers Trust, the Environment Agency, the MOD, the A66 Trans-Pennine team and The Woodland Trust to see if further Natural Flood Management works can be put in place on the fells where the streams that feed into Warcop originate and/or on farmland, with the relevant permissions.
We have been told that there might be some officer time available to survey the landscape and perform the necessary modelling and the EA have at least two promising funding streams that can be applied for to cover some of the costs, although success is not guaranteed.
What we hope to see, if all the above partners can work together collaboratively on this, are a range of natural measures such as leaky dams and storage ponds, plus extensive tree planting, to slow the flow of the becks before they deposit large amounts of water into Warcop during periods of heavy rain. If we experience another severe storm like Desmond, even these measures might not protect properties completely. However, they will help.
The Parish Council will try to keep you informed of any further progress on this priority which we believe is vital in order to further protect properties in our village.
Here is a report published by Cumbria County Council in 2016: