What’s happened so far

In the first four days of January Cambridgeshire County Council has received 37 reports of flooding across the county—and more are still coming in.

The Council is contacting all community flood groups and Parish Councils in the affected areas to offer any support it can, and will continue to check in with them over the next couple of weeks.

In some parts of Cambridgeshire over a month’s worth of rain has already fallen in just the first four days of January, onto ground that is already saturated. The Environment Agency said in mid-December that the soil moisture deficit was 0mm in places—ie the soil had no capacity to soak up any more water.

The average monthly rainfall for January locally is 48.62mm, but Environment Agency rain gauges for the first four days of the month indicate 35.4mm already in Ely, 44mm near Fulbourn, 44.8mm in March, 46.4mm in St Ives, and 52.9mm in Brampton.

The Council expects to receive further flood reports over the coming days—and indeed I received three more this morning which I have passed on to the County Council to add to the growing list across Sutton, Mepal, and Pymoor. So far, the immediate forecast is for several dry days and a period of cold weather, but some rain is forecast upstream around Milton Keynes and Buckingham which feeds the River Great Ouse. This means we could see rising river levels into next week.

I’ve reported to the County Council’s flood and water team and drainage and resilience team every instance of flooding in the first few days of this year that has been advised to me, and will continue to keep a log so that I can check progress with council officers as they carry out their flood investigations.

Reporting flooding

• For flood or storm issues which are an immediate threat to life call 999.

• For highways emergencies that are a risk to property call 0345 045 5212 9:00AM to 5:00PM Monday to Friday, or the Police on 101 out of hours. See also https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/roadworks-and-faults/report-a-highways-emergency

• To report existing flooding visit https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/report-a-flood

Checking river levels

• To check the river level at Earith before your journey, visit https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/6180

• For Sutton Gault, it’s https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/6252

• And for Welney, it’s https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/6245