Fears town centre to become first in UK to be abandoned as shops left underwater

A UK market town has been left facing disastrous water damage in the aftermath of Storm Bert after a tractor was driven down its flooded high street on November 24.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and released on bail, with businesspeople left to deal with sodden possessions and damaged property.

It has been reported that he has since apologised, with the man claiming that he was rushing to help a friend rescue someone from flooding.

Now, The Guardian has told of how people in Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire fear that the centre of the town could become “abandoned”.

Richard Sharman, the owner of Garlands Flowers, told the paper: “On Monday when we came in we wanted to leave, lock the doors and just disappear.”

He added: “We’ve lost about £6,000 and we won’t get a penny back. Six weeks ago we lost about £4,000 in a flood.”

Dave Throup, a retired Environment Agency (EA) manager in the area, said: “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say it potentially could be abandoned.

He added: “It sounds a dramatic claim, but people are already voting with their feet there.

“If you keep getting flooded once or twice a year and can’t get insurance, you just can’t keep going on. Without some kind of flood defences, the future looks very bleak indeed.”

Tenbury Wells’ location is particularly problematic. The town is situated on flat, low-lying land almost surrounded by water.

There is the River Teme to the north and a tributary of the waterway – the Kyre Brook – in the south.

This means that the settlement is often flooded by riverwater, as the Kyre Brook overflows into the town centre when the Teme is full.

The Guardian adds that this can “submerge streets in seconds”.

In January 2022, the Environment Agency (EA) said: “Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire is situated on the banks of the River Teme. A tributary, the Kyre Brook, also joins the River Teme in the town.

“Both the River Teme and the Kyre Brook have a long history of flooding. After the flooding in February 2020, the Government committed an additional £4.9 million of public money to allow a flood risk management scheme (FRMS) for Tenbury Wells to be progressed.

“Our aim is to start construction by late 2022.”

In November 2021, the Government said that the EA is designing a new flood risk management scheme for the Lower Wick area of Worcester to ‘protect homes from flooding’.

The new scheme, it was said, will “reduce the risk of flooding to 26 properties”.