It was a huge relief that the most serious flooding was avoided in and around Malton and Norton as river levels rose during Storm Christoph. As of today, there is are still flood warnings in place in the Upper Derwent catchment, which includes Old Malton and Norton. Disaster in January was avoided thanks to the huge efforts of local people, our fire and police services, the Environment Agency, Ryedale District and North Yorkshire County Council and Yorkshire Water which worked 24 hours a day to keep water levels down.
I went to County Bridge to lend my support and was enormously impressed with what I saw and I would like to thank everyone involved. At one point 29 pumps were in place to manage the water until the river levels receded. County Bridge was closed (but is now open), as were some of the nearby roads including Castlegate, Norton Road and Church Street. Efforts were made to improve the emergency defences by building a second line of defence to help stop any further damage and reduce the risk of flooding to residents of Norton and the railway line. Sadly, some houses were flooded and people are still not back in their homes, which is heart-breaking for them but if it weren’t for the efforts of all the teams involved the damage could have been much worse.
I have already taken part in one multiagency online meeting to tackle the clear up and set our stall out for future improvements and will continue to work with all these agencies to find ways of protecting our towns and affected areas from flood water.
As we look forward to the Spring months I hope that the threat of flooding will recede but I would urge constituents to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through any flood water. You can find out more information about flood warnings here: https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/warnings?location=malton
