Northwich flood defences 'worked' as storm swept across town

Flood defences installed in Northwich worked as planned but issues with drainage led to flooding, Environment Secretary George Eustice has said.

The town suffered severe flooding for the second time in two years as Storm Christoph swept across the UK, bringing heavy rainfall and snow.

Mr Eustice visited the Cheshire town earlier to see the clean-up operation.

"The important thing is the flood defence scheme worked, it did its job," said Mr Eustice.

"It kept the river within its boundaries and we didn't get the river bursting its banks and flooding the town," he said.

Flood defences, costing £7m, were installed in 2016 to prevent the rivers Dane and Weaver from breaking their banks.

Mr Eustice said "the issue...was with surface water drainage," adding the Environment Agency, United Utilities and the local authority "are working on a plan to try to improve that drainage".

The Labour MP for Northwich, Mike Amesbury, said a "full investigation" was needed to establish how the flooding had happened again.

Darren Moss' shop, Northwich Fireplace Centre, was flooded for a second time but on this occasion it was much worse, he said.

He described his shop as having been "wiped out" with "all the fireplaces and the stoves submerged in water".

Dave Brown, from the Environment Agency, said the flood defences stopped the two rivers breaking their banks and causing even greater damage.

"We would have had a really dangerous situation," said Mr Brown.

"We wouldn't have been able to form the rescue that we did in the way they did because we would have had fast-flowing water, people would have been knocked off their feet."

United Utilities said flooding was a "complex issue" which had to be tackled as a whole system.

A spokesperson said: "The sewer network in Northwich operated as designed. The two critical pumping stations that serve Northwich have been working exactly as they should to keep sewer flows moving through the system.

"However, the record water levels in the River Weaver naturally prevented the town's drainage overflow systems from operating."

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