Villagers who live in fear as rain comes after bitter experiences

PEOPLE IN Mytholmroyd get anxious when there’s heavy rain because the town has been hit by flooding so often, says senior councillor Scott Patient.

The village two miles east of Hebden Bridge has had four severe floods in the last 10 years and “countless” near misses.

It was devastated by flooding at Christmas in 2015 and millions of pounds were invested in flood defences. But many homes still got flooded in February.

Coun Patient, a local resident, whose children’s school has been twice hit by flooding, says the £ 30m Mytholmroyd scheme, which began in spring 2018, is now “not far off” completion.

Unlike in February, he says, there are no “glaring gaps”.

The Labour councillor, who is Cabinet member for Climate Change and Resilience on Calderdale Council, believes the Environment Agency scheme will help. But he warns: “The increasing severity, magnitude and frequency of flood events isn’t going to be solved by throwing millions at civil engineering schemes. It needs a national and global situation.”

And he feels the recent government flood summit held in South Yorkshire was a “missed opportunity”, adding: “It should have been more Yorkshire- wide.”

Coun Patient said people’s anxieties are being compounded by the pandemic – and they “are feeling quite beleaguered”. The council was investing in gully wagons and keeping sewers clean and working with the flood warden network so people have flood plans in place.

He said: “Communities like Mytholmroyd always get it the hardest, we have a lot more houses by the riverside.

“I think everyone here has anxieties when there’s heavy rain because it has happened so many times.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work around mental health, through one of our partners Healthy Minds.

“It is difficult in a pandemic, they have been doing peer support online and Zoom webinars, but it is a challenge.”