In a recent post we shared some questions raised during our Tower Gardens event on 3rd February.
One question was:
How much water does Tower Gardens absorb and does this make a difference to managing flooding on the Ouse? Would further paving in Tower Gardens increase flooding down stream? Could this be balanced by creation of deliberate ponding?
We’ve been in touch wih Matt Hodkin from the Enviroment Agency and he said:
The volume of water stored on Tower Gardens is very small in relation to the amount of water that passes down the Ouse during a flood, but the Environment Agency would still want to see evidence that any loss of storage did not have a negative impact elsewhere. If work was planned so as to provide a new area of water storage to compensate for any loss of floodplain then we would want to see evidence that the timing of flooding (ie when the gardens flood compared to neighbouring properties) had been considered and would not significantly change. We are also aware of past sewer and drain works in the area, and along with CYC and Yorkshire Water we would want reassurance that surface water run-off and local drainage had been considered. This would be particularly significant if large new areas of paving were introduced.
So the volume of water stored in the ground is small, but any paving wopuld need to consider impact… we’re working on the other questions, more soon!
For heavens sake don’t pave over any green space- what’s the point?
Thanks Jake, this is very much an issue opento debate. One issue is grass and flood recovery but there are very much mixed views on this. We’ll be picking up the issues related to Tower Gardens in May. Let me know if you’d like to be notified of future events.