Floods have washed our garden away
Family flee £400,000 new home after river wipes out 25ft of land
AN architect and his family fled their £400,000 new home after floods swept away part of their garden – leaving the property perched over a 10ft drop to a river.
The torrent also swept away a new patio, garden furniture and fence at the side of the house and left the foundations exposed.
It is only 22 months since Leigh Adams, 46, his wife, Simone, 40, and their sevenyearold daughter Ellie moved into the property following assurances from developers that it would not flood.
The estate where the family live near Newport, South Wales, had been refused by planners because it was deemed a flood risk – only to be approved on appeal to the Welsh government on condition that ‘robust flood defences’ were put in.
The housebuilder, Redrow, is now footing the bill for the family’s stay in a hotel.
The Ebbw river flooded during Storm Dennis last month. Mr Adams said: ‘ My neighbours knocked on my door and said the river has burst its banks.
‘Over a period of around an hour I watched the river bank collapse and take my garden. The fence was swept away along with the garden furniture, the patio and all of the recycling bins.
‘Then it proceeded to take scaffolding we had up to fit solar panels. I rushed my family out. I had to get them away from the property. We are all traumatised.’
The couple bought their home on the Carnegie Court estate in
May 2018. The four-bedroom house was originally 25ft from the river and Mr Adams says it is now acting as a flood barrier for the rest of the estate. The family want Redrow to move them into a new house on the same estate. Mrs Adams the house said: we were ‘ When given we cast-iron bought guarantees. We were assured by the developers that all the flood defences were in place. The pair of us are at breaking point. There is so much uncertainty.’
Newport Council said it was working to ‘ protect people and property’ at the riverside site. A spokesman said: ‘In 2005, we refused permission for a residential development on the former Tredegar Park Golf Course on the grounds of the flood risk.’
But the spokesman added that the Welsh Assembly ‘ concluded that the risk of flooding would not be unacceptable and placed considerable weight on the applicant’s claim that new flood defences would provide further protection further downstream’.
Kate Lacey of Redrow said: ‘It may be little consolation to Mr Adams, but the flood defence works put in place helped significantly mitigate the damage from this extreme weather.
‘There are 108 occupied homes on the site and the Adams’ home remains the only uninhabitable property as a result of storm damage. We will continue to do what we can to help the Adams family during this distressing time.’
‘The pair of us are at breaking point’