July 20th marks the 10th anniversary of the awful floods Gloucestershire suffered, particularly in Gloucester and Tewkesbury. The effects weren’t just limited to one day, as the water supply was lost for almost a fortnight and bowsers became a regular sight on the streets. Walham Power Station, just outside Gloucester, came within two inches of flooding and only heroic actions by the military and emergency services saved it. Without that, there could have been a civil emergency and a mass evacuation of the city.

Determination and community spirit
It was a tough and traumatic time for many people, particularly those whose homes were flooded and their possessions ruined. A silver lining was the great determination and community spirit that saw us through it – and the huge number of volunteers and organisations that, often literally, waded in to help.

It’s right that we mark this anniversary, but that we do so in a sensitive way, given that the memories will still be painful for many people. A Cathedral Service has been organised for 5.30pm on Tuesday 25th July. Gloucester’s Carnival, which had to be postponed because of the floods in 2007, takes place on 22nd July and will feature some key figures from the events of a decade ago, as well as some fire service appliances that were used at the time.

There have been huge investments in flood alleviation measures
And we will be publishing a report outlining what has been done since 2007 to guard against a recurrence. The City Council, County Council, Severn Trent and the Environment Agency have all invested huge sums of money in flood alleviation measures, from small schemes on brooks and streams to the £1.5 million flood storage area for the Horsbere Brook and multi-million pound investment in new sewers. That investment is still ongoing. Some people might claim that a complacency about the risk of flooding existed before 2007, and there may be some truth to that, but it certainly doesn’t exist now.

So let’s mark, in a respectful way, the anniversary of that terrible event and resolve to continue doing all we can to stop it happening again.