Asda flooding backs Big Pit spring claims
TORRENTIAL downpours led to the closure of a town supermarket when the foyer flooded.
The heavy rain forced staff at Asda on Barwell Lane, Hinckley to shut its doors four hours early on Tuesday June 6.
Customers were asked to finish their shopping and leave and the doors were locked at around 6pm.
As the rain came down the car park began overflowing with surface water which began seeping into the front of the store.
Paula Marks who had been in store with her husband took some photographs of the deluge. She said: “They had more water in Asda than they have in the leisure centre. I felt quite sorry for them.
“There was a good eight inches of water. It was coming over my husband’s shoes.
“To be fair the staff did their best, they got us all out very quickly and were very organised, I can’t fault them. They had big hoovers but it was just coming in more than they could get it out.”
An Asda spokesman confirmed the closure but said no goods were affected and the store was open as normal the next day.
However, the problem has reignited concern over development in the area given the frequence of flooding.
The store is next to the Big Pit, a former clay pit turned lake, and according to campaigners a likely discharge body for underground streams.
Plans were aired last year from Orbit Housing to drain and fill in the watercourse with around 75,000 cubic metres of soils and clays before building around 60 properties.
It is estimated the dumping operations alone, given the green light on appeal in December 2014, will bring up to 75 HGV deliveries a day to the Ashby Road site for four months or more.
Campaigners have always said the scheme was flawed, given the spring fed nature of the Big Pit and its natural drainage course.
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Councillor David Bill, who has been part of the resistance to Big Pit development for many years, said the Asda flooding backed their belief.
He said: “There have been problems with flooding at Asda for the last 40 years, ever since it was built. There are massive drains under the building which of course drain directly into the Big Pit. The question which we keep pressing is where is all this water supposed to go when the Big Pit is filled in?
“In the same vein, the massive flood relief scheme to tackle Leicester Road and Island Close problems is well underway but there is no indication where this water is going to end up other, of course, than in the Big Pit.
“No doubt some expert somewhere is going to assure us all that it is well but I was brought up to believe that water always flows downhill and to me that is the function of the Big Pit.”