A flood defence basin is to be built in a park to divert rising water from nearly 300 nearby homes and businesses.
Bolton Council’s planning committee have approved Environment Agency proposals to use Old Station Park, in St John Street, as a flood overflow area. The current children’s play which is within the ‘flood basin’ area will be relocated elsewhere in the park and a new multi-use games area, which was previously used as a contractors’ compound during the construction of the new leisure centre, will be created.
Horwich town centre has a ‘long and repeated history of flooding’ from Pearl Brook, occurring nine times between 1946 and 2012. Flooding most recently hit the area on Boxing Day 2015, when several properties were affected in Back Emmett Street.
Other affected areas from Pearl Brook breaking its banks include Winter Hey Lane and Mason Street areas. The storage basin would be formed by extending existing embankments around the perimeter of the park on the western side of Pearl Brook. The basin will be designed to keep the recreational use of the park.
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The planning meeting heard concerns about some well loved cobbled paths within the park which will be affected by the works. However, a condition was added tot he planning approval to re-use the stones.
It said: “Prior to the commencement of development, a scheme detailing how the existing stone setts within the park directly affected by the development are to be reused within the development shall be submitted.”
Several mature trees will also be lost and it was noted that there will be a ‘biodiversity net loss’. Councillors heard that the primary cause of flooding is the low capacity of the culverts close to Chorley New Road and the open river channel immediately upstream.
During extreme rain, floodwater spills from Pearl Brook into the centre of Horwich via Back Emmett Street. A report from planners said without intervention the ‘regularity and impact of flooding to properties in the centre of Horwich will increase as a consequence of climate change’.
212 homes are at risk of flooding together with 72 non-residential properties. The main entrance into Old Station Park from St John Street will remain and the path into the centre of the park will pass through a gap in the embankment. A self-closing flood barrier will be installed that will automatically rise when the park is required for flood storage.
A new crest level footpath will be built allowing visitors to walk around the perimeter of the storage basin. The footbridge over Pearl Brook on the eastern side of the park will be retained but the existing structure will be removed and the new crossing will be incorporated into the proposed control chamber structure.
