Region begins to mop up after torrential downpour

Roads were closed and villages vulnerable to flooding once again saw water levels rise and rivers and streams break their banks.

In Lanchester, County Durham, drains were unable to cope with water running off surrounding hills and collecting in Front Street, rising to around two feet in parts.

 A stranded BMW taxi on Grange Road in Gateshead), which ran into difficulties on the flooded road on Monday evening. Photograph by North News and Pictures

Lanchester Community Emergency Plan was invoked at around 8pm on Monday, and two farmers and the fire brigade cleared leaves from the drains.

Water got into both the New Image hairdressing salon and the Red Cross charity shop.

New Image stylist Dena Ackerman said: “It was flooded in the morning. There were a couple of inches in the middle of the salon.

“The council was supposed to be doing something to prevent this.”

Helen Taylorson, who works at the Red Cross charity shop, said the water was ‘lapping all over the village’ on Monday.

She said: “You could not see the pavement or the roads. The carpet in the shop was soaking and muddy.”

Durham County Council said a ten week scheme to improve drainage in Front Street had been completed last month.

The authority is also working with the Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water on a study to develop a flood prevention plan.

The council’s head of technical services, John Reed, said: “Last month, as part of general improvements to the highway network, we installed a new type of drainage system in Front Street, Lanchester.

“On Monday, an unprecedented amount of rain fell in a very short space of time and we are confident that this new system helped prevent what could have been a much more serious flooding issue."

Elsewhere in the region, one of the main routes through the North York Moors had to be closed when heavy rain washed 500 to 600 tonnes of gravel from an escape lane down the A169 at Sleights, near Whitby.

The road was closed at 6pm on Monday evening when gravel from the escape lane next to the steep road and other debris washed down the steep bank and into the village, blocking the road.

A number of properties in Sleights flooded and seven vehicles became stuck in flood waters.

Most people managed to escape from their cars but two had to be led to safety by North Yorkshire fire crews.

When the village became impassable buses with the Yorkshire Coastliner were forced to terminate at the remote village of Goathland, high up on the North York Moors.

Workers managed to clear the road and it was reopened to traffic at about 11am on Tuesday.

A number of areas of Hambleton and Richmondshire were also hit, where a number of properties were flooded, including in Bainbridge, Hawes and Grinton in the Yorkshire Dales. Water also came into homes in Ripley and Whitby.

Great Ayton was hit particularly badly, with shops on Park Square flooded when the River Leven burst its banks.

Residents in Mill Terrace turned out overnight to clean drains to try and get water levels down, while fire crews pumped water out at the bottom of Roseberry Crescent.

Flood waters came perilously close to Roseberry Academy Primary School’s lower school office after flooding the school’s carpark and homes in the centre of the village flooded after the River Leven broke its banks.

A warning was issued for the river at Great Ayton at 9.18pm on Monday following hours of heavy rain on Monday afternoon and evening.

It was followed by a flood warning at 9.26pm for the River Leven at Hutton Rudby, affecting properties in the Holmes, Leven Valley and Levenside areas.

Cattal Bridge near Tockwith was closed on the approach roads and the road from Bishop Monkton to Roeclife was also closed due to flooding.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, North Yorkshire’s executive member for highways said they were monitoring the highways network and urged motorists to drive carefully with the surface water on roads across the county.