The observant ones among us may have noticed, on occasion, engineers from Yorkshire Water seemingly busy at work at various strategic points around Bishop Monkton, which would seem as though they could be relevant to the flooding that the village experiences.

A villager who enquired as to what work the engineers were carrying out, was informed a signal was being installed on the sewerage pipe. This was, apparently, to alert Yorkshire Water to an impending or actual blockage, which would then elicit an immediate response. This is known as telemetry, a process which automatically collects, measures, and transmits data from remote sources to a central location for analysis, monitoring and fast response if required.

Having learned of this, the website contacted the M.P., Sir Alec Shelbrooke, to enquire whether he had any further information and he kindly sent this response.

“When we met with Yorkshire Water on site in the village a commitment was given to install telemetry equipment on a number of manhole covers to resolve the issue that residents talked anecdotally of covers coming loose during flood incidents but Yorkshire Water claiming they have no evidence. The specific request was made for such equipment so we could have an evidence log, which will then hopefully direct some further action.”

When Sir Alec visited the village on November 5th he described Yorkshire Water's attitude as "lackadaisical" and said he was frustrated by its failure to follow up on agreed actions from a meeting in the village in September.

To read the report of the Sir Alec raising the issue of flooding in Bishop Monkton in the House of Commons click

The village's Flood Action Group has asked people to look out for overflowing manholes when heavy rainfall occurs and the need to do this has not diminished in any way. It is important for evidence to continue to be gathered and then Yorkshire Water cannot say they have not been informed or know nothing about the seriousness of the problem.

The number to report problems to Yorkshire Water is 0345 124124.