Culvert repair spending approved by councillors

Fixing the broken culvert in Deepcar should save the council money in pumping floodwater, the council says

Funding for a £1.6m project to tackle flooding in part of Sheffield has been approved by councillors.

The money will be spent on repairing an underground waterway in the Deepcar area of the city.

In 2019, nine homes in the area were flooded while a council report said a further 35 were at risk if the work to unblock the Clough Dyke culvert was not carried out.

The project will be paid for in part though a £1.5m Environment Agency grant.

The work, approved at a Sheffield City Council meeting on Monday, involves unblocking and replacing a section of the broken culvert, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"Clough Dyke is an open watercourse that runs through woodland in Deepcar before entering a culverted section, which has collapsed and become severely blocked," the planning report said.

"In periods of prolonged and/or intensive rainfall the water builds up behind the blockage, resulting in deep water in the woodland. When the build-up of water reaches a certain depth it over-tops its natural boundaries and spills out, causing flooding to nearby residential properties.”

Currently the cost of pumping out the water and precautionary measures are costing £80,000 a year, councillors heard in June.

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