Flooding brings renewed calls for lake dredging
Posted on Sunday 17th November 2019 at 6:15 pm by SH (Editor)Another episode of flooding in Bradley Stoke’s Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve, on the morning of Friday 11th October, saw paths covered in several feet of water, making them impassable for children walking to school and commuters using the Concorde Way cycling route.
The incident has brought renewed calls for South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) to expedite dredging of the Three Brooks Lake (a.k.a The Duck Pond) to remove the high levels of silt that have accumulated since the task was last carried
out in 2005.
In a response reported in our November 2018 magazine, SGC said it was “still in the investigation stage of the [de-silting] project” and was “awaiting an estimate and method statement” from its selected contractor. It added that it was “still in the process of identifying and securing funding”.
The current town mayor Tom Aditya identified the issue as a priority when he took office in May and the town council subsequently wrote to SGC asking it to “investigate the desilting of the lake at the as a matter of urgency”.
The town council’s letter added: “It has been observed that one day the lake can be flooded and then a couple of days later there is significant amounts of mud exposed with the water levels very low. This would indicate that the lake is not doing what it was designed for i.e. an attenuation pond. The flooding, in turn, causes damage to the paths surrounding the lake.”
However, a response received from SGC’s chief executive officer insists that “the lake is not an attenuation pond, it is an amenity lake”, referring to details in the consent granted by the National Rivers Authority in 1993 ahead of the creation of the water feature.
More: SGC "still exploring the options for funding the work" »
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