Chesterfield garage lost 10 cars to Storm Babet torrent within “30 minutes”
A Chesterfield motor servicing and MOT garage lost 10 cars to a torrent of flood water which engulfed it within “minutes” on Friday.
Autofix director Paul Boler estimates the business has lost over £300,000 during Storm Babet – when water from the River Rother gushed down Clayton Street in Spital.
Two of the vehicles belonged to the business while the rest were customer cars.
Inside the building Paul says “everything is gone” – including MOT stations, electrics, tyre machines, wheel balancers and handheld tools.
Speaking about the event on Friday morning, Paul said: “We had three cars up on ramps and the water was coming down the road.
"We tried to get the cars and drive them to the bottom of the street, out of the way, and it was just too late.
"Water was coming over the tops of the cars, within half-an-hour it was as high as the Riverside pub down the road.
"It looks like Beruit out on the road, it’s just a nightmare.”
The business started in 2018 was doing over 200 MOTs a month when the storm hit.
Paul is currently waiting to find out if his business insurance will cover the losses, however he has had to lay off three employees while the business is closed.
He estimates it could be months before the garage can reopen.
Paul added: “We have some loyal customers and hopefully they’ll come back but my main worry is ploughing money back into it and then you might have another storm in two weeks’ time.
"They said in 2007 it would never happen again, but it has happened again 16 years later.”