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  4. Alleviating flooding in Otley

Alleviating flooding in Otley

We designed a sensitive scheme to protect homes and businesses from flooding while enhancing biodiversity and habitats, and improving a brownfield site.

Situated on the River Wharfe in West Yorkshire, Otley is familiar with flooding, having experienced increasingly frequent floods over the last 30 years. In November and December 2015, several events in close succession culminated in the most severe flooding the town had seen for decades. Storm Eva, on Boxing Day 2015, inundated more than 50 residential properties and several local businesses. The road to Otley Bridge was submerged, severing the community in two and – without an alternative route nearby – cutting off access to schools, shops, the hospital, and other local amenities.

Working with Leeds City Council (LCC) and the Environment Agency, we began assessing the flood risk and possible solutions before this flood occurred. When, as a result of the 2015 floods, central government committed £2m to provide flood protection in Otley, we worked closely with the community to consider potential solutions. The preferred option was to use a parcel of barren brownfield land north of Otley Bridge to create a new flood embankment with sheet piling at its core. One end ties in sensitively to the 13th century bridge (an ancient listed monument) and the other into higher ground in a resident’s garden. Together with their neighbours, this resident received landscaping to the garden as well as a new fence and shed. 

 

Enhancing a brownfield site

With the scheme highly visible within a conservation area, we were careful to consider its visual impact throughout the design process. The final design completely hides the sheet piles – above ground all that’s visible is a sloped embankment, trees, wildflower seeding, open channel watercourses and planting at the edge of the river. By taking great care, we were able to reuse much of the original stone from walls at the site.

 

What a privilege it is to be part of a team that has the chance to have that impact on people's lives. The Otley flood alleviation scheme protects people’s homes physically from the flood waters but, just as significantly, it protects their wellbeing. They can sleep at night knowing that if the rain pours they won't have to stay awake worrying if the waters will reach their homes. They won't have to move all their possessions upstairs, and won't have to fear being evicted from their home for months by the flood water.

Although the project’s primary function is to defend the town against flooding, we have turned what was previously a disused piece of brownfield land with culverted watercourses into an appealing green space. The scheme has enhanced biodiversity and habitats through planting trees, creating wildflower meadows and opening up the culverted watercourse (along which fish have already been observed). Bird and bat boxes have been installed to encourage more wildlife.

The scheme also includes vegetation management on downstream islands. This increases conveyance in the river channel, reducing river levels and mitigating the any increase in flood water levels upstream due to the embankment. Alongside these island works a few of the felled trees have been anchored along the edge of the islands, creating ‘tree kickers’. These create small, localised variations in flow as well as providing shade – the perfect environment for the spawning salmonoid fish known to use the area.

 

Part of the community

The scheme has many stakeholders in the local community and it was important to engage with them throughout. For example, Otley Sailing Club required 24/7 access to their land through the construction site. We carefully managed their access, as well as that for people to walk the public right of way through the site. We also designed the access so boats on trailers could travel across the ramp over the defences without being grounded.

 

I can't begin to explain how very traumatic I found the December 2015 flood and the aftermath, with eight months of upstairs living before we could have a sense of home again. My family and I are so grateful for the work that has been done in both very careful modelling, and implementation of the scheme.

The Otley Fair and Otley Agricultural Show take place annually on the site. We needed to liaise carefully with them to ensure works didn’t disrupt these important community events – including making sure articulated lorries could get over the defences.

Regular communication via letter, email and social media kept residents up to date. Our team spent days working from locations in Otley, making themselves available for people to drop in for a chat. As a result, they built trust with the community and were even on first-name terms with some residents. They also participated – along with staff from LCC and the Environment Agency – in volunteer days picking litter and removing invasive Himalayan balsam from the watercourse.

With the project complete, heavy rainfall again deluged the River Wharfe in February 2022. This time, though, the embankment protected homes and businesses, and kept the main road open. 

The project team – WSP, a BAM Nuttall Mott MacDonald joint venture and Leeds City Council – won the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Yorkshire and Humber region’s Smeaton Award for 2022.