Residents go home as dam water levels fall

SOME residents evacuated from Whaley Bridge can return to their homes immediately after water levels in a reservoir dropped quickly, police told a community meeting.

Derbyshire Police said earlier those evacuated from the town must wait until experts decide that the Toddbrook Reservoir’s damaged dam is “absolutely safe” and most residents face waiting until after an inspection today.

More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from the Derbyshire town since Thursday following heavy rain, although a small number refused to leave their properties.

Police said a safe water level at the reservoir had been reached and engineers would be assessing the damage to the wall before making a decision on allowing more people to return.

Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Swann told a public meeting at a school in nearby Chapel-enEvacuated resident Melissa Broxup returning to her Whaley Bridge home

le-Frith last night that residents of the Horwich End area could return home.

She said: “I have got a meeting at 12pm tomorrow where I am expecting we will have good news. We have obviously been pumping the water out and it has gone down at a fast speed. It is now beyond 9.5 metres.

“We will keep draining the water until it is safe to stop. What we need to do is just to check the reservoir is fit for when it rains again and we have got a yellow weather warning.”

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning covering much of England, including the Derbyshire town, on Friday and Saturday.

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said earlier “work is ongoing” at the dam and “nowhere have we said that the dam is safe” after people were hopeful of a return to their homes.

In response to a tweet which said “the dam is considered safe”, the fire service said: “Nowhere have we said that the dam is safe now. Work is ongoing and road closures and evacuations are still in place to preserve life. We will open roads and let people return home as soon as we can, but we have no way of knowing when this will be.”

At an earlier meeting yesterday, residents were expected to be told there is still work to do to make the dam safe.