Following the disastrous floods in October 2001, flood defences for Halstead have become a matter of urgency.

After extensive consultation and technical work, the Environment Agency have come up with a scheme for creating a flood storage area upstream of the town. This will be achieved by building a barrage or flood storage embankment across the Colne just north of the former Box Mill. Planning permission has been granted and funding is now available; so provided the Government have no second thoughts on the financing, work should begin in April and be finished by November. As part of the scheme, the Halstead Hedingham road at Does Corner, which regularly floods, will have to be raised and realigned.

The flood storage embankment (see map) will be 4.5 metres high and in the normal course of events the river will pass through it unimpeded.  When the river floods, the embankment will hold back surplus water which will create a temporary lake as far upstream as Hull’s Mill. There will be no effect on Sible Hedingham or villages upstream of Hull’s Mill (although a wider flood management strategy is being undertaken by the Environment Agency and will be available in 2005).

Flooding between Box Mill and the point opposite Brook Street Farm where the former Colne Valley railway crossed the river will be much more extensive than was the case in the past, but this will be restricted to agricultural land. The barrage can be constructed using local clay and providing there is no flood, normal farming activities will continue. Once the barrage has been grassed over, the view from Does Corner towards Halstead should be very little affected.

From an aesthetic point of view this seems a thoroughly good scheme which will avoid dredging the river in Halstead and does not involve the pouring of tons of concrete.

Jeremy Hill