River Dour to flood?
- 6 February 2014 16:21260148Walked along the Dour path this morning and outside the Riverside Centre the levels were at the highest, very near overflowing. There were sandbags out.
Has the river flooded here before? - 6 February 2014 18:23260171Just got back from representing the River Dour Steering Group at a meeting of the East Kent Catchment Partnership in Ashford (the car park by the Stour Centre was under 2/3 inches of water when we came out)
Most of the Environment Agency staff gave apologies as they were dealing with flooding in Bridge, but I saw this around 4pm and have reported it. I've heard CPSOs have asked to borrow waders from the river clean-up volunteers! - 6 February 2014 18:28260172Lesley Ives wrote:Certainly has, that's why Reg and Co fought against builing the Polyclinic on that site.
Knowing the low risk (this is a 30 year rainfall high and the river is still just within its banks) a decent design would have coped with that problem, I could say a lot more but won't! - 6 February 2014 20:02260177saw those sandbags yesterday and thought it was a bit over the top but better to be safe than sorry i suppose.
i can't remember a time when the banks of the dour burst in town, that was a bit of a red haddock with the hospital - much more to do with individual egos than anything else. - Bob Whysman
- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,934
6 February 2014 20:26260185The Ouse down here in Sussex is well over the top and the roads around Barcombe Mills are only passable by boat so start building an Ark as 2/3 inches soon becomes a lake under the current conditions.
Good luck.
Do nothing and nothing happens. - 7 February 2014 05:49260206River Dour flooding was discussed at length on this thread:
https://www.dover.uk.com/forums/dover-forum/rain-rain-rain-rain-rain
This was the Riverside Centre flooded out in 2007:
- 7 February 2014 07:09260207Sorry but they were right not to build the Hospital there we have seen this happen a few times over the last 70years. The cost would have been many times over the £20million that was put to oneside to build one.They are the facts of the case.
- 7 February 2014 12:13260239when i went past the riverside centre last monday i thought the sandbags were a bit over the top, passing by today shows that they were right.
- 7 February 2014 12:38260244probably the highest i can remember the dour.
- 7 February 2014 14:37260255Lesley, if the river is overflowing its banks there it's because it can't get downstream fast enough, so the practical solution is to widen the river downstream, which would mean deculverting the car park behind the Pencester shops, possibly demolishing some of the Pencester shops, temporary closure of Pencester Road while it's deculverted, widened and recovered, same on Castle Street, demolishing Images (cheers all round ) and widening the river downstream from there including the culvert that goes into the docks underneath the De Bradelei wharf car park. All of which would be ridiculously disruptive and expensive.
There are similar problems upstream, all a problem of either previous piecemeal solutions or the previous industrial use of the river which in itself is part of the heritage of the town with a tourism potential. And if you do this then during periods of low flow you have an even bigger dried out river bed.
You have to do a cost/benefit analysis to see what is worthwhile in financial and community terms before anything is considered worth pursuing, and the River Dour Steering Group hosted by the Dover Society is currently engaged in a partnership which is doing just that for the full length of the river as part of a national program - all volunteers with any relevant skills or experience to help with a local input always welcome! - 7 February 2014 14:44260258I've seen on the news that people in other parts of the country have been trying to get their local rivers dredged. Would that help with the Dour?
- 7 February 2014 15:04260261Would that not destroy the very essence of what makes the Dour a unique habitat, destroying the work of the RDSG and Environment Agency?Dover and Cinque Ports Life Magazines are on Facebook www.facebook.com/DoverandCinquePortsLife
- 7 February 2014 15:13260263Difficult to give a clear answer Karlos! It has been done around Charlton Green last year, partly to silt contamination from it's previous occupants and partly to re-profile the river bed so there is a deeper channel in the middle which will be constantly scoured to maintain a gravel base for trout breeding. That bit of work cost around £70,000.
We've just had a report done on the silt in Crabble Mill pond - it's a complicated situation known as the Ripple Effect which at high flow levels as we have now will remove silt from the bed and carry it downriver, then as the flow slows down the silt will be deposited wherever it happens to be, so what will happen depends on the length of time we have these conditions.
And to Paul, yes, one view is that the best way is a natural river with lots of trees and vegetation around which will slow down the rainfall and help it be absorbed into the ground rather than going straight into the river and giving flash floods, which is probably what happened with those pics from 2007 where the runoff from hard surfaces went straight into the river. We are hoping to renaturalise the Dour wherever possible for many reasons but everything done has to go through a flood risk assessment. - 7 February 2014 15:14260264I don't know, that's why I asked.
- Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,803
7 February 2014 15:50260270Ray is there no way of releasing more of the river water into the sea at low tide by creating a second outlet to work a bit like a sink overflow. Going by the height of the Dour at Charlton Green I am sure it would have flooded by now if it had not been dredged as they took several large lorry loads of silt away.
I like the idea of a natural river but in our modern world it is not always practical, when possible man and nature should work together but unfortunately there are times when man is more important so should be put first.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
7 February 2014 18:44260289some more rain coming accompanied with strong winds gusting up to 70 mph/100km an hour.
http://news.sky.com/story/1208067/wet-weather-here-to-stay-as-jet-stream-blamed - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
7 February 2014 18:58260293 - 8 February 2014 17:43260338these photos were taken earlier and sent to me.
in this one you can see how high the level is as the river leaves pencester gardens on its way to the sea.
then when it passes the subway and reaches the wellington dock the levels seem normal.
the people who run the convenience store castle st/russell st would like an answer to this. - 8 February 2014 20:15260370howard mcsweeney1 wrote:these photos were taken earlier and sent to me.
in this one you can see how high the level is as the river leaves pencester gardens on its way to the sea.
then when it passes the subway and reaches the wellington dock the levels seem normal.
the people who run the convenience store castle st/russell st would like an answer to this.
Howard, the Pencester height is probably to the flow limitations of the culverts going under Castle St - if you look over the Castle St railings you can see the smaller one, to see the bigger you have to go in the gardens of the flats, but private property.
Once you get past the bridge by the Lord Nelson the river bed gets much steeper so the flow increases - until the tide starts coming in then it will flow the other way up that point, and if the tide is high enough as it was during the recent tidal surge it will backup, reach the top of the banks and overtop. You can see seaweed on the walls in the bottom pic and it goes almost up to the Lord Nelson. - 8 February 2014 20:56260371thanks for the info ray i will pass that onto interested parties, the dour keeps coming and going from view in town and to the sea causing confusion to people trying to follow what is happening.
