2024-05 Cawood Parish Council and Resident Communications
Working to reduce flood risk in your area.
May 2024
Improvements to Cawood flood risk management assets
This document aims to provide you and your community with details of our current and planned work in
Cawood.
Transfer of Bishop Dyke Pumping Station from Yorkshire Water to the Environment Agency
You may be aware that the Environment Agency and Yorkshire water have been working towards the
transfer of the pumping station on Old Road to our control. The map below shows the location of the
pumping station and associated assets.
The Environment Agency has finalised a project design to be delivered this financial year to improve the
reliability of the Pumping Station. The transfer of the asset will take place at the commencement of the
refurbishment project. Our contractor BAM Nuttall have scheduled a start date for this project of the 28th of
May 2024; however, this is subject to change.
We have agreed with Cawood Parish
Council to site a small secure
compound/working area between the
pumping station and the bridge. The impacts
of delivering this refurbishment on the
residents of Cawood is expected to be
minimal, with work confined to the
building/compound, small numbers of people
working on site at sociable times and in the
main modest deliveries of
equipment/materials.
The first phase of the project will install
temporary pumps and control equipment.
This will mean that the pumping station will
be able to pump more water than is possible at present. During this phase our contractor
will need to use a HIAB (lorry mounted
crane) from the bridge end of Old Road and
having an area free of parked vehicles will
make this activity much easier. We will use
cones and signs to show where we will be
working and would politely request that you
leave the marked area clear between the
27th and 31st May 2024 to facilitate this phase of the project.
The lead time for the new permanent pumps is around 6 months so there will be a period where there is
minimal site presence or activity. The second phase of the project will then focus on preparing for and
installation of the permanent pumps. The project has been developed in this way to ensure that the station
is reliable from the point the asset is under Environment Agency control. The current expectation is that the
project will be completed by the end of March 2025. Foreshore Monitoring
The Environment Agency commissioned a series of monitoring surveys of Cawood foreshore, which
started in September 2022, with 7 surveys to date. We are using the surveys to monitor the amount of
movement occurring in
the area between the
church and the bridge,
shown in the map
below. The data will
provide us with
evidence to inform
decisions on how we
maintain the foreshore
and flood risk
management assets in
the future.
The initial work involved: installation of stainless-steel monitoring points in the crest of the floodwall (by way
of drilling and fixing), and multiple ground markers at intervals between the floodwall and the river’s edge.
These markers are being monitored for movement using a manual height measuring tool. Additionally, we
have also recently installed three glass tell-tale monitors to measure cracks occurring on the wall.
The surveys to date have shown there is minor movement on the foreshore, with an average elevation
change of less than 1mm. We have commissioned 3 more surveys to further build our understanding of
what is happening. This data and our analysis of it will underpin short, medium and long-term asset
management decisions.
We greatly appreciate the cooperation we have received from the residents affected, in allowing us to carry
out this monitoring.
Future Capital Works
The Environment Agency is constantly reviewing the condition of the assets which manage flood risk from
main rivers, working in partnership with other risk management authorities to deliver the best standard of
protection and asset reliability with the funding available. We are currently assessing both the Lower
Wharfe and Lower Ouse catchments considering both the present day and future risk. This will include an
assessment of the condition of the assts which protect Cawood Village.
Who can I contact for more information?
If you would like further information on these projects, please get in touch using the contact details below:
YORKS.AP.SUNOW@environment-agency.gov.uk
Post – National Customer Contact Centre PO Box 544 Rotherham S60 1BY United Kingdom
Telephone – 03708 506 506 (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm)
Incident Hotline – 0800 80 70 60 – to report urgent or emergency issues to the EA.
BAM Nuttall Site Agent – Craig Smith 07443 267415. If there is an urgent need to raise an issue outside
office hours, please contact the Incident Hotline number above and ask for the York Flood Incident Duty
Officer.