"I can’t see me being here in five years", says Chesterfield pub landlord as river rises "dramatically" during rain

Landlord Jamie Rawson made the comments today (Tuesday) as he began putting the pub back together as rain began to ease off following 24 hours of heavy rain.

On Monday he began moving stock and furnishings from the cellar, bar and lounge as the water levels in the River Hipper surged higher and higher.

By 8pm on Monday the landlord said he was “paddling” “ankle-high” in his cellar, however by Tuesday morning he had made the decision to move the contents back into place and open up to recoup lost income as the river levels stabilised and he was able to pump water back out of the cellar.

Speaking to Derbyshire Times on Tuesday afternoon, he said: “Yesterday it was eight hours of kind of getting things up as high as possible so now it’ll be a full day of trying to do the same. It (the river) is quite low now and there's not a lot of rain forecast, as far as I’m aware, later on.

"Yesterday, every half-an-hour it was dramatically on the up. By about 1.30pm-2pm, I just decided I was going to have to start getting things out of the cellar and getting them as high as possible – all the newly-refurbed soft furnishings – as high as I could.

“As well as thousands of pounds worth of stock, wines and spirits, tables and chairs that I’ve just spent a lot of money on. I emptied the fridges and got everything upstairs.”

By yesterday afternoon Jamie had still not received a flood warning from the Environment Agency. The first warning he received was at 7.45pm, at which point the landlord was “already paddling in the cellar”.

He said: “It was nothing on the scale of last time, we’re talking ankle-high. But everything was moved upstairs.”

Jamie said he was “shocked and pleased” to see manholes and gullies being cleared at the time of writing – making a “huge difference”, stopping drains from backing up and allowing the sump pump in his cellar to clear the water.

Speaking about the situation almost exactly a year on from Storm Babet, he said: “I don’t feel like enough has been done. Not just since last year but during the last 15 years.

"I think everyone in this area would love to know the exact specifics of what has done over the last 15 years to prevent flooding and what the specific detailed plan is for the next five-ten years.

"What are they actually going to put in place. If it’s going to become an annual event lots more needs to done. If it’s an annual event to the level of last year, I can’t see me being here over the next five years and why would anyone want to live here?”

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “We were sorry to hear that The Anchor was affected by flooding again and can understand the distress and extra work that this must have caused Mr Rawson.

“We continue to work with all key partners, including the Environment Agency, to try and reduce the risk of flooding in Chesterfield. Unfortunately, in such extreme events, we can't prevent flooding entirely and despite the work conducted so far and planning for the future, some areas of Chesterfield remain at risk of flooding.

"However, by working with our partners and people who are at risk, we are continuing to work to minimise its effects and reduce the damage flooding causes. The actions we have taken since Storm Babet include:

- With the Environment Agency we’ve conducted inspections of all the places where flooding took place. Where we can we have addressed issues and notified the relevant landowners of issues they need to deal with.

- As lead Local flood Authority we have produced the Section 19 Flooding Report, which will allow partners and the community to develop a shared understanding of what happened, how it happened, and any actions and learning to be taken from Storm Babet. We are now consulting on this report.

- We offered money for those affected by the floods through our Property Flood Resilience grant scheme and received over 500 applications

- With the Environment Agency we’re looking at options to either remove or refurbish bridges on the Rivers Hipper and Rother to remove obstructions to flow.”