Severn Trent and Staffordshire County Council have made significant strides in tackling ongoing flooding issues in Eccleshall.

The flooding, which is happening in and around the Castle Street and Stafford Street areas, is being caused by a combination of surface water collecting on the ground and the sewer system becoming overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.

Staffordshire County Council is responsible for the highway drainage system, while Severn Trent manages the sewer systems in the area. Because Eccleshall’s surface water system involves assets owned by multiple parties - including local landowners - effective management of heavy rainfall is a shared responsibility.

To date, more than £350,000 has been invested by Severn Trent and the county council to reduce the risk of flooding in the town. The funding has supported key improvements including:

• upgrades to drainage systems
• the installation of debris screens to prevent blockages in storm drains
• extra stormwater holding tanks at the pumping station on Stone Road
• detailed flow modelling surveys to investigate the underlying causes of the flooding.

Keith Flunder, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet Support Member for Highways North, said:

“We recognise the challenges that flooding has caused for residents in Eccleshall, which is why we’ve been working closely with Severn Trent to find a long-term solution.

“With warmer and wetter winters becoming more common in recent years, we’re also investing an additional £45 million to improve and maintain our highways over the next three years, with £1 million specifically allocated to improving highway drainage across Staffordshire.”

Jeremy Pert, Staffordshire County Councillor for Eccleshall, added:

“We fully understand the concerns raised by residents about the ongoing flooding in Eccleshall, and we will continue working closely with Severn Trent until we have developed a lasting solution to this very complex issue.”

Combined work focused on developing options based around capacity upgrades of surface water drainage and sewerage system

Bob Stear, Chief Engineer at Severn Trent, commented:

“It’s essential that we continue to work together with Staffordshire County Council to develop the best and most effective solution for the local community.

“Our combined work is focused on developing a number of options based around capacity upgrades of the surface water drainage and sewerage systems. We will continue to update everyone as the work to find a permanent fix continues."

The organisations remain focused on developing a long-term solution to increase the capacity of Eccleshall’s surface water drainage and sewer systems to prevent future flooding.

Writing separately to customers, Bob Stear explained that the flooding caused by heavy intense rainfall can happen due to different reasons, including :

• Flooding can occur when rainwater stays on the ground (surface water flooding), which falls under the remit of the Lead Local Flood Authority. For Eccleshall, this is Staffordshire County Council.
• Rainwater enters the underground sewer system and mixes with wastewater from homes and businesses. When there is too much water, the system can get overwhelmed, causing sewer flooding. To prevent this in the past, older sewer systems were designed with storm overflows that allowed the extra rainwater to flow into nearby watercourses instead of backing up and flooding properties.

The town of Eccleshall has two separate sewer systems, both managed by Severn Trent. One system collects waste from homes and businesses, while the other handles rainwater and runoff from roads, roofs, and nearby fields. The waste from the foul sewer system flows to a pumping station on Stone Road, which pumps it uphill to a treatment plant near Sturbridge village.

The letter says that the pumping station normally has enough capacity to handle the wastewater flow. However, as the town has grown over the years, more rainwater is entering the foul sewer system. During heavy rainfall, the system becomes overwhelmed, causing overflows that release excess water into the local watercourse through a storm overflow to prevent sewer flooding.

“Performance of this overflow is currently not where we would like it to be, having spilled 67 times in 2023 and 26 times in 2024"

Bob Stear continued:

“The performance of this overflow is currently not where we would like it to be, having spilled 67 times in 2023 and 26 times in 2024. Severn Trent’s aim is that by 2045 we’ll be spilling no more than 10 times in a year from any of our overflows across the whole of the region….

“The surface water system in Eccleshall is complex, with assets owned by Severn Trent, Staffordshire County Council, and local landowners. Since these systems need to work together to manage heavy rainfall, managing surface water is a shared responsibility. Strong collaboration between all parties is essential to finding a long-term solution.

“Severn Trent Water has been working closely with Staffordshire County Council in recent years to assess the performance of the sewerage and drainage systems. Together, we are actively engaging with landowners, businesses, and residents to reduce and better manage the amount of surface water entering the system.”

Digital twin will enable better understanding of how heavy rainfall is being drained

Over £350,000 of investment has already been put in by both Severn Trent and Staffordshire County Council to resolve some of the flooding issues in Eccleshall, including:

• Drainage improvements in Stone Road to take the storm surcharge away from the carriageway.
• Installing trash screens to stop storm drains from being blocked and overtopping.
• Physical surveys to confirm the capacity of assets, understand how rainfall is connected to the sewerage system and calculate how much impermeable areas are connected, such as roads and roofs. This entails measuring and mapping the network to ensure we understand it in its completeness.
• A flow monitoring survey, where instrumentation was left in the network recording hydraulic performances for several weeks which helps to observe how the system reacts to rainfall.
• Additional storm water holding tanks at the pumping station to take some of the peak storm water and reduce the frequency and duration of storm overflow spills
• A detailed above ground and below ground capacity modelling flood study to develop a “digital twin” of the drainage and sewerage system in the town.

The digital twin will enable a better understanding of how heavy rainfall is being drained and we are using historically reported incidents to verify its accuracy. The model will help identify the principal sources and provide a platform to develop solution options.

Additional storm water holding tanks at the pumping station to take some of the peak storm water and reduce the frequency and duration of storm overflow spills.

The letter concludes:

“We are now focusing on developing solutions to increase the capacity of the surface water drainage and sewer systems to prevent flooding. We are also working to agree on how the costs will be shared between stakeholders.”