Villagers on flood ‘knife edge’
JPPP-SOB FLOODING (GM) MRW 3/1/2013 There was flooding in the Hambledon area since the New Year but not as severe as in some recent years Sandbags on the roadside on the outskirts of Hambledon Picture: Malcolm Wells (JPPP-SOB FLOODING - 5678)
HAMBLEDON residents are ‘on a knife edge’ as water levels reached an alarming height after heavy rainfall.
The village is built beside the Winterbourne River, while underground springs feed more than 90 village wells.
Hambledon Flood Group chairman and parish councillor Tony Higham said: “After the long spells of heavy rain, the water starts rising and the river, dry most of the time, starts running, and it’s time to worry.
“Now water is coming up in The Vine pub well and wells in house cellars.”
The rain takes about 10 to 14 days to soak down through the chalk hills before rising in the village.
The retired naval commander said: “At the moment, no houses have flooded, but we have been on a knife edge waiting for the water to peak, and if we have more rain then the 10-day cycle will start again.”
Some householders have been pumping their cellars since Christmas, in one water rose to within two inches of the living room floor.
At The Vine, landlord Stephen Guermonprez said five pumps were holding back the well water, but that without them “we would have flooded, no doubt about it.”
He added: “We need dry weather to gain some respite.”
A village meeting is being held to discuss how Hambledon sewage station was overwhelmed by the rain, resulting in raw sewage being pumped onto nearby fields.
And Winchester City Council is to debate if anything can be done to prevent future flooding. Damage to homes and busineses in the 2000 flood cost an estimated £3m to put right.
Partial reasons for the flooding are filling in of a drainage ditch which ran through the village so tanks could park there in readiness for the World War II D-Day landings. A second is that road levels have been raised over the years, and are now higher than the bottom of cellar entrances, allowing water to flood in. Similar concerns about water levels are in place in other villages such as Finchdean and Rowlands Castle. But Environment Agency experts say things are now “stable” in East and West Meon, Meonstoke, Warnford, Droxford and Soberton where flood warnings were issued when local borehole levels rose six metres.
Meon Valley MP George Hollingbery says he has been monitoring the situation and has offered to help in any way he can.
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Weather for Petersfield
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North
