Villagers hope dredging river will reduce flooding

An amphibious digger will be used to dredge the Cuckmere River near Alfriston, East Sussex, in an effort to reduce flooding incidents

Villagers hope that dredging the Cuckmere River using an amphibious digger will reduce flooding after more than 20 incidents last year.

Work to de-silt a 1.5 mile (2.4km) stretch of the river just outside of Alfriston, East Sussex, starts on Wednesday.

Farmers said the stretch of river was left to become too narrow, causing flooding in recent years which cut residents and businesses off from the main route out of the village to the A27.

The Environment Agency (EA) said it monitored the mouth of the river, cleared shingle when necessary, and installed a temporary pump in the village in the winter to help move water.

Jonathan Spring, a parish councillor in Alfriston, said: “Flooding has caused problems when they’ve tried dredging before, so at last it looks like the river will be in the right condition and we have the correct equipment to get the work done.

“This time last year, businesses in the village were pulling their hair out. We had constant road closures, cars getting stuck in the water.”

The Pevensey and Cuckmere Water Level Management Board (WLMB) spent more than £100,000 raising and reinforcing the eastern side of the river bank earlier this year.

The dredging, which is expected to take two weeks, was also funded by the WLMB. The footpath is closed on the eastern side of the river while the work takes place.

Jane Francis lives in a cottage next to the river which has flooded her home four times since 2019.

“We’ve noticed the flooding has got much more frequent in the last few years,” she said.

Jane Francis lives in a cottage next to the river and now has pumps installed inside her house to get rid of flood water

“The first major flood was in 2019, since then we’ve had lots of warnings and actual flooding events. The previous 10 years we never flooded.

“When it was inside the house, it was just below knee level."

An EA spokesperson said: “We monitor the condition at the mouth of the Cuckmere and clear the shingle when it becomes necessary to maximise the flow of water out to sea.

"In the winter, we install a mobile pump at Alfriston to help move surface water, groundwater, and occasional fluvial flood water into the Cuckmere.”