Storm Babet flood reports in Suffolk to continue in 2025

Suffolk County Council is currently undertaking the mammoth task of completing around 50 individual reports into the flood damage caused in October 2023.

As the lead local flood authority, the council has an obligation to investigate events where five or more properties in a specific location flooded and where businesses may also have been impacted. 

Suffolk was hit with torrential downpours and flooding during Storm Babet (Image: Charlotte Bond) Three or four may normally be completed in a single year, whereas up to 60 to 80 may be required after Storm Babet.

"We are going through a process, as the lead local flood authority, publishing what are called the section 19 reports," said Councillor Paul West, cabinet member for operational highways and flooding at Suffolk County Council. 

"Some of the effects are already known. We have published so far the top seven priority areas, which were based on severity and numbers of properties flooding in the Babet storms and the storms after. 

Cabinet member for operational highways and flooding at Suffolk County Council, Paul West (Image: Suffolk County Council) "Six or seven have been published, there is another six or seven on the way. So we are around a third of the way through, so into the middle of next year we should be getting even more progress on." 

Additional staff have been recruited to help complete these reports, with the hope they are all published by the end of 2025. 

Areas such as Framlingham, Debenham, Wickham Market and Needham Market were among the worst affected areas in the county. 

More than 100 residential and commercial properties were flooded in Framlingham, while in Needham Market around 45 properties suffered flood damage. As a result, both towns were among the highest priorities for the reports. 

Cars submerged under water in Framlingham during Storm Babet (Image: Carl Squirrell) Schemes are gradually being developed, with the help of multiple parties, in a bid to make towns and villages across Suffolk "more flood resilient".

Cllr West continued: "We all have different responsibilities to tackle. The programme for our drainage team is ongoing and never ending.

"I think it is just an ongoing process to try and make Suffolk more flood resilient than it has been in the past because of the changing weather. We are not alone as a county in that. 

"In the area of Needham Market, in Barking, in the area it flooded last winter, the ditches that were blocked we have just been back ahead of the winter to make sure that it is completely clear. 

"There are a series of things, by a series of parties, that could be done."

People had to be transported by boat across Debenham during the storm (Image: PA/Mary Scott)

Mr West said he has noticed farmers and private land owners "doing quite a bit of ditch maintenance in the last 12 months."

Regular maintenance of ditches, watercourses and drains are among the recommendations in the flood reports already published. 

It was announced on Monday that while the county council is investing another £1.5million to help with recovery works after the storm, a further £20million could be required to fund more projects. 

Council leader Matthew Hicks has written to Flooding Minister Emma Hardy calling for the government to plug the funding gap, which Suffolk County Council says it cannot afford. 

"We reckon that all the recommendations coming out of the section 19 reports will be in the order of £20million," added Cllr West. 

"Every local authority is under pressure. It is hard to conjure up £20million out of nowhere. 

"We are making that ask of the government to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation."