Severe flooding in Melksham, caused by Storm Bert, has been described as the most significant to hit the town since 1968, damaging local shops, businesses and homes.
Prolonged heavy rainfall flooded many parts of the town on Monday 25th November, breaking the banks of the River Avon and sending water across Bath Road, flooding homes and businesses, including those at Avonside, as well as flooding the former Avon factory site.
Cars were backed up and abandoned across town and the surrounding villages, leading to the closure of Bradford Road and New Broughton Road in the town centre.
However, business owners along Bath Road said the road remained open for some time before the police officially closed it, prompting them to take action to protect their premises. They placed wheelie bins in the road to prevent drivers from driving through the floodwaters.
The owner of The Cobblers Bench, Nic Clyde, said although the floodwater did not reach the inside of the shop due to the building being higher up, cars that were still using the road caused water to spill in. “It was like someone chucking a bucket of water in,” explained Nic. “We were lucky as the water only came up to our second step but floodwater has now got underneath the floorboards from the waves caused by passing cars, which is making everything smell damp and our windows are constantly wet.
“Our back garden though had about five inches of flooding. Before 9am there was nothing, then we saw it coming up through the drains. It was really odd.”
Another business owner on Bath Road, Kevin Beadle from Wiltshire Framing, said the flooding cut off their electrics for 24 hours and destroyed stock in the shop’s back room, which had to be thrown away.
Community support
The community has rallied to support those worst affected by the floods. In particular, a fundraiser has been set up by Snap Fitness gym to help a family whose home on Broughton Road was flooded when the River Avon burst its banks.
The Portch family have been left homeless and their bedroom and living room furniture, coffee tables, appliances and personal items were all destroyed. They also lost all electrics and plumbing in the house and their cars were stranded in the water, which have since been written-off.
By 7am on Monday morning, they had water lapping at their door and by 11am they had two-foot of water inside their home, which continued to rise as the day went on.
To help the family rebuild their home Snap Fitness launched the fundraiser which raised over £2,000 in less than 48 hours. To support the fundraiser visit https://shorturl.at/sNGAG
‘Where was the council?’
Business owners have expressed frustration at a lack of support from Wiltshire Council, the town council and emergency services. “It was a bit annoying not to see anyone from the town council come to support us,” said Nic Clyde. “We were out there ourselves trying to stop the traffic and flooding, and putting bins in the road to stop people from driving through it, but then people were having a go at us, telling us we didn’t have the right to block off the road – but why would you want to drive through it? Why would you not just leave your cars? We were just trying to protect our businesses.
“MP Brian Mathew did phone us up, so that was good. I read that the town hall was closed due to the flooding, but why were they closed? Anybody who wants to go and speak to someone quickly about the town would go there; I thought it was ridiculous. We still haven’t heard from any councillors.”
Kevin Beadle said, “We never saw any police or councillors. One councillor did ring us the next day but it was too late. The good guys were the Scottish Southern Electric team; four lads spent all night checking everything was ok. They were empathetic with the whole thing. We never got any of the councillors coming down to check we were ok, even the day after when the floods had gone, they could have come down and popped their heads in to check. We saw no one.”
‘Worst flooding’ since 1968
Many of the town’s older residents may remember the flooding that hit Melksham in 1968.
Chair of the Melksham and District Historical Association, Paul Carter said, “On the evening of 11th July 1968, much of the south west was also flooded because of the amount of rain that fell all at once. There were many areas within the south west where a great deluge came down at the same time.
“Because the town was blocked off by the water, the army had to bring in vehicles to transport children to and from school to get to the other side of the Avon to Lowbourne. There are people of a certain age in the town who can remember either being on the transport or watching their friends being transported.
“During that time, the worst hit areas were similar to the worst affected areas in the recent floods; Broughton Road down by the cycle shop and then through the park was flooded and over the other side at the junction with Lowbourne, Union Street and Ruskin Avenue got very high.”
Due to ongoing censorship by Wiltshire Council, Melksham News was unable to obtain a statement regarding its response to the floods. Melksham Town Council did not respond prior to going to press.
