‘You can say communities should move, but where to?’
Villagers on the front line of flooding face a choice between mass relocation or an uncertain future
When Sir James Bevan, the head of the Environment Agency, said that the worst flood-hit communities may be best served by relocation, he might have had in mind a place like Mytholmroyd, W Yorks.
The village’s 4,000 residents well know the danger of the water, caught precariously between the River Calder, the Rochdale Canal and the Pennines. Memories stretch back generations, to the earliest recorded flood in 1837. But nobody has ever known so much water, in so little time: after three floods in eight years, Sir James’s words this week felt personal.
Lisa Thwaites, the owner of the riverside Blue Teapot café, has emerged defiant from the destruction brought by Storm Ciara. “It’s all very well saying communities must move, but where do you go?” she asks. “This island is only so big.”
She took over the café six months ago and is unable to get insurance, so has relied upon donations from local businesses to rebuild the café, which was left waist-deep in water.
“Is it a good idea to move here? Probably not. But having lived here all my life, I’m not going to leave,” she says. “We all look after each other. We can’t just move.”
Ms Thwaites’s words are echoed by many in the village. Whether it’s the warming climate, environmental degradation or poor planning, responsibility for the recent bout of flooding cannot be brought to the doors of those who live by the river.
But there is some pragmatism. Just a few doors down from the Blue Teapot, Jon Duerden is preparing to close his hardware store for good after 31 years. The emotion is visible on his face as he talks about his future.
“I’m 72 this year. People are wanting me to re-open. I don’t want to if it’s going to happen again, and it will, won’t it?” he says. “I’ve done three floods, and I’m not prepared to go through it all again.”
He wants to sell his shop and the home above, but says he hasn’t got “a cat’s chance” now. After floods in 2015, the Government bought up three buildings that were at risk of collapsing into the river, including the village post office, and Mr Duerden welcomes the idea.
“I’m all for moving, if I can get away from all of this. Of course I would.”
If mass relocation sounds like an impossible project, there is precedent.
Between 2000-18, the Dutch government bought up the homes of 200 families who were forced to relocate in a project to give back “room for the river” in 30 locations to limit the impact of flooding.
“It was a time of huge emotional uncertainty – and it really felt like an attack for some people,” remembers Vic Gremmer, a now 63-year-old social worker who moved just 100 metres (330ft) from the cottage in the Noordwaard, by the Nieuwe Merwede river in south-west Holland, where his children were born.
He warns anyone in his position to get “expert advice”. He estimates that from start to finish, it took 14 years to complete his move, including much back and forth over the amount of compensation he would receive.
In Mytholmroyd, government-led projects are already eyed with suspicion. Many blame the piecemeal and painfully slow construction of a £32million flood defence scheme for the scale of last month’s devastation. Gaps in the defences left water flowing down the road and back into the river in some places. The Government has promised £6.6billion of investment in flood management across the country, but the Environment Agency has acknowledged that it cannot keep building “ever higher walls” to keep out rising waters.
Residents in places such as Mytholmroyd, a conservation area steeped in history, would not welcome walls that changed the landscape anyway. Even those who have moved away from the river say there are always others ready to take their place and accept the risks.
“These places are high-risk because they’ve been allowed to be high-risk,” says Scott Patient, a local councillor.
“You can blame the Victorians for building the infrastructure around the valley bottom.”
‘I’ve done three floods, and I’m not prepared to go through it all again. If I can get away from all of this, of course I would’