[milton-chat] Flooding

[Jane Coston]

At the moment rain water finds its way into our ditches and flows naturally
down to the river.

In the future the lake will be in the way

The problem is - the lake is a clay lined bath like structure sunk into the
ground, it will have very high banks which will stick up a long way above
the ground and stretch from just this side of the A14 to the next village -
Waterbeach - about 2 miles.

All the water for vast areas of Cambridge and the science park drains into
the lower level of the river at Milton.

In future this huge crucial ditch which goes under the railway to the river
will have to pass under part of the lake scheme because it empties into the
river below baits bite lock -  whilst the lake will be filled with water
from above Baits Bite Lock.

The lake which is partly in floodplain will be holding water at the higher
level of the river in an area where the river is lower - what would happen
if it leaks?
In times of heavy rainfall the lake will act as an enormous tin roof - if
all the extra water was allowed to flow out of the lake at times of flood it
would add to the problems,

In the future it looks like Milton will have to rely on a pumped drainage
system

What will happen if the pumps fail?  

We wanted to see detailed drainage plans and information on how the system
would deal with flash floods and pump failures etc. before the plans were
passed.

We know there will be a drainage solution but this may be a compromise and
we will be condemned to rely on pumps - nothing in my opinion will serve us
better than our current system.

If anything goes wrong -would water be held on the Milton side by the huge
banks of this structure?

Size

The area that the lake is being built on is about the size of a large
village.

The difference is  - if something goes wrong with buildings they can be
knocked down but if something goes wrong with this plan we may be left with
a large hole and it would be difficult to put everything back as it was.

It will be almost irreversible if it all goes wrong.

The parish council has raised concerns about loss of trees, construction,
noise, traffic, public access, reinstatement issues, drainage and general
impact.