Natural Flood Management

In the winter and spring of 2014, serious flooding affected the Parish, in all villages.  The Parish Council began working with Defra, Hampshire County Council, the Environment Agency and the other parishes of the Bourne Valley on a Community Pathfinder Project to build our flood resilience.  A report and action plan was published in April 2016.  Appendices 7 & 8 set out the action plans for Upton & Ibthorpe, and Hurstbourne Tarrant.

Since 2014 the Floodwatch Working Group has been working to raise funds to carry out the actions in the report.  So far the following projects have been completed:

• A new gulley and pipe under Dene Green has been installed by the Army Engineering Corp to improve the flow of water meeting the village from the Netherton Valley
• The pipe under the A343 from Dene Green to Church Street has been checked by HCC Highways and cleared of obstructions of debris
• The pipe which runs from Dene Green to Church Street requires enlarging where it meets at the junction of The Crescent.  Initial surveys by HCC Highways Engineers have taken place and work should take place in the spring of 2020  to upgrade this.

Plans were made for once the river subsided to regrade the riverbed from the SSE substation at the Parish boundary with Stoke, through to the south side of Upton, removing silt and rubble build up to improve flow and capacity along the river.  This would involve working with Riparian owners.  Funding was been obtained from Test Valley Borough Council Community Infrastructure Levy money.

This work is now due to start October 2021, at the Ibthorpe end, through to Lower Farm on Church St, HBT.  The regrading will purely return the riverbed to its gravel base state.  The letter to Riperian owners and the Schedule of Works produced by HCC are below; all Riperian landowners were contacted and where works are being carried out, permission has been given by them.

Looking to the future, the parish council is hoping to work with the Wessex Chalkstream & Rivers Trust, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency on a project to restore the banks, improve flow and improve habitat.

Dene Green works

In 2014, Dene Green, at the north end of the village adjacent to the A343, flooded badly, sending a large volume of water down the A343 for several weeks.

In 2015, the Royal Engineers, as part of their MACC service (military aid to the civil community) dug the front ditch and installed a pipe under the dryer track, to channel water from the Netherton Valley (historically known as the River Dene) into the 600mm pipe under the A343.

The ditch wasn’t put to the test until 2020, when the Netherton valley rivulet rose once again, the first time since 2014.  The water levels became worryingly high in March, just before the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown, but the weather changed, the rain stopped, and the ditch proved its worth as neither Dene Green nor any properties flooded.

As part of ongoing management, at the end of January 2021, the Parish Council installed a gulley across the track at the north east end of Dene Green, to deal with the flow of water (again fed by the Netherton rivulent under the A343) from the accumulation in the horse field.