Hampshire Highways, Environment Agency and other bodies urged to work together to tackle Forest flooding

COMMUNITY leaders are calling for more “neighbourly” work among landowners and government agencies to help stop flooding in the New Forest.

Peter Hebard, who runs Brockenhurst and New Forest Flood Action Group, wants greater collaboration between district and county council departments, the Environment Agency and other bodies.

His call was echoed by Sopley parish councillor Barry McDonnell, who says he also wants to see these groups working together better to manage flooding in his area.

Former engineer Mr Hebard held a public presentation on the effects of climate change and maintaining the area’s flood defences earlier this year.

“Despite our efforts to use last winter's extreme rain as a wake-up call for Forest authorities, they did nothing to help over the summer,” he told the A&T.

“Even though we gave various bodies’ senior executives a full briefing and a tour of the critical hotspots.

“We’ve said we want neighbourly help, nothing too demanding. For example, when landowners are out in tractors working on the land around Balmer Lawn, they could take the opportunity to clear any debris like fallen trees out of the stream.”

Mr Hebard says there is a “cartel of ecologists” working in the Forest, among them Forestry England, Natural England, the national park authority and Environment Agency.

“They’re all saying they didn't want to help us, with some of them suggesting our works at the Flood Action Group might damage the Forest ecology,” he said. “But they weren't there at our February presentation to see the works that are needed.

“Last summer they were told there would be a presentation trying to tell them we have these works to do over the summer and hoping they would work with us on that.

“We weren’t suggesting anything special – even riparian work, something as simple as help clearing brambles from waterways, can reduce problems with flooding.

“We’ve also asked for help pulling up trees and layering them on river banks to align with water flows.”

He continued: “I’ve emailed Forestry England about this four or fives times in the last year, I kept nudging, but none of the work we wanted happened.

“I wrote to David Bence, the chair of the NPA, about all this as well – he had some very warm words but nothing happened.”

Mr Hebard, who has lived on the Forest for more than 30 years, says his two goals are to keep the Forest’s drains unblocked and roads open, but increasing annual rainfalls are making this more challenging.

He added: “Engineers from various bodies seem to work within one kilometre of a river’s source, but not any further downstream. I’m talking about plans that would restore wetlands over several kilometres of waterways. I’ve invited Forestry England to send a representative to discuss this but they said they’re too busy to come and could only spend 30 minutes here at most.

“I said that would be long enough for me to take them on a drive around to point out some flooding trouble spots, but I was told no.

“A lot of these bodies seem very defensive; it’s a symptom of governance on the Forest.

“There are some 370 parish councillors throughout the Forest who seem to have no say on anything done to the Forest. All the work seems to be done by unaccountable people.”

Describing flood mitigation efforts in Sopley, Cllr McDonnell told the A&T he does a “hell of a lot of liaising” with Hampshire’s highways engineers, the Environment Agency and private landowners.

He said two major problem areas include the waterways crossing Fish Street in Ripley, and Derritt Lane between Sopley and Bransgore.

“Sopley and Ripley very often cop it when there’s heavy rain,” he told the A&T. “The area’s the bottom of a big bowl.

“I think it’s fair now to say that with global warming and increased rainfalls, things are getting out of control.”

He added: “We can’t control the weather, and in a lot of ways, we can’t control flooding. We can do preventative work to stop individual homes flooding.

“The Environment Agency has been out and walked every mile of the area’s waterways and identified factors that contribute to flooding – trees in river, collapsed river banks.

“The agency has been fantastic and supportive. but dealing with Hampshire highways is not such a rosy picture.

“They're now engaging with us at the top level. but that’s after a year of them saying ‘not our problem – talk to the landowner’.”

Describing “similar problems” dealing with BCP Council, Cllr McDonnell continued: “People need to take ownership of these issues.

“I’ve found I can point to flooded areas on a map and show that it’s owned by Hampshire Highways, only for them to say, ‘it’s not our area and not our issue to deal with’.

“You can’t have ownership and not take responsibility. I’ve put out reminders to the community over the last few weeks asking people to clear the drains in the roads outside their homes because it makes a big difference.

“There’s been 13 months of finger pointing [over flood mitigation]. We've previously invited Highways, the Environment Agency and landowners to on-site meetings, and Highways has never turned up.”

Responding to Mr Hebbard’s and Cllr McDonnell’s comments, an Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Our ongoing work in the Hampshire Avon catchment involves teams engaging with communities like Sopley in Dorset, Rockbourne and Bransgore in Hampshire, and Britford in Wiltshire, to help residents reduce their flood risk with property flood resilience.

“We have also been busy engaging with the Brockenhurst and New Forest Flood Action Group about maintenance activities for riparian owners in the Brockenhurst area.”

The A&T has approached Hampshire County Council’s highways department for comment.