'Tremendous progress' for flood-hit West Yorkshire valley five years on

"Tremendous progress" has been made to tackle flooding in West Yorkshire which was devastated by storms on Boxing Day five years ago, a charity has said.

More than 3,000 properties in Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Mytholmroyd were flooded on 26 December 2015.

Charity Slow The Flow said 1,000 volunteers helped to build "leaky dams, attenuation ponds, stuffing gullies" to reduce the impact of flooding.

But the pandemic had "all but stopped" its practical work this year.

In a video posted on Facebook, Bede Mullen, chair of the charity, said: "Five years on and we've made tremendous progress promoting and implementing natural flood management in the Upper Calder catchment."

Initiatives included building more than 600 dams at Hardcastle Crags, near Hebden Bridge.

"We've been encouraged by the volunteers who have come forward to work on our projects," said Mr Mullen.

"We've worked with close to 1,000 volunteers, ranging in age from four to the mid-70s, building leaky dams, attenuation ponds, stuffing gullies and placing logs on contours of hillsides to slow the flow of water coming from the tops to the valley below."

The charity was set up in the wake of the Boxing Day floods by local residents who were hit by the devastation.

It has worked with the Environment Agency, the National Trust, Calderdale Council, Yorkshire Water and experts to tackle potential future flooding.

"As a group of local residents involved in the clearing up of that devastating flood and seeing at first hand the impact it had on people's lives and livelihoods, we knew there were things we could do immediately to reduce the impact of flooding in the valley," Mr Mullen said.

Communities in the West Yorkshire valley suffered an estimated £150m worth of damage after more than 60mm of rain fell in a 24-hour period.

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