Bridgnorth residents praised for community effort as water levels finally recede

Despite the water levels having peaked at 5.10 metres in Bridgnorth yesterday morning, parts of the town remain underwater.

Councillor Ian Wellings, of Bridgnorth Town Council, said: "The river peaked at about 10am yesterday morning and it started to recede in the evening and afternoon, but it's going down very slowly."

He said that the northern end of the Riverside park was still underwater and had heard reports that Wellmeadow had been experiencing flooding.

Now, as the town looks towards the clean-up, Councillor Wellings reflected on the "tremendous community spirit" of people living in the town offering their support.

"The thing that has been really successful has been the WhatsApp support group," he said, which is a localised neighbourhood group for residents to keep in touch and communicate.

Councillor Wellings said that there were parts of the flood plans that will need improving for the future, which will be discussed at upcoming meetings.

The Old Mill Antiques Centre, in Low Town, is located near the River Severn, with the centre's car park backing on to Doctor's Lane.

John Ridgway, owner of Old Mill Antiques, said: "We are in a very old building that was built a long time before global warming affected it."

Mr Ridgway has owned the centre for 27 years since 1995 and said that the previous owner had never known it to flood.

In 2000, Mr Ridgway experienced what he thought was a "freak event" of flooding as water levels reached its highest on record at 5.26 metres.

Since then, flooding had not appeared to have been a problem until the last few years, which has seen the Old Mill flooded each February through a spring located under the floorboards of the antique centre.

"After the last two years and lockdown, we installed pumps under the floorboards," Mr Ridgway said, in order to deal with the issue.

However, going forward, Mr Ridgway said that more pumps will need to be installed after the current ones had been overwhelmed with water this year, which will be hard work and very expensive.

Last year, some of the cheaper items of furniture did get damaged and had to be thrown away, although items of value were moved upstairs and out of the way, he said.

Mr Ridgway expects much faster and much deeper floods in the future and is looking to find some way of making the walls waterproof.

Lezley Picton, leader of Shropshire Council, visited Bridgnorth today as the clean up began and said: "So many houses and businesses are suffering from this terrible flooding.

"I've been talking to the Environment Agency and also to our MPs about how we can find some more short term and medium term solutions to help communities like Bridgnorth.

"The geography in Bridgnorth is really, really difficult. So we will be asking the Environment Agency to look once again at trying to get something done here.

"The communities have worked incredibly well together. Bridgnorth, after the floods in 2020, put together a flood action group and they have been brilliant working across the whole of Bridgnorth delivering sandbags, making sure that everybody's alright.

"So we've been asking the Government to install the Bellwin Scheme, which allows us to access more funding to help with the clean-up.

"And that's what we'll be doing as the river now moves on down towards Bewdley and Worcestershire."