'Shocking' floods reported as Maidenhead gardens resemble lakes

Photos by Jean Sutherland

'Shocking' levels of flooding were reported in and around North Town Moor over the weekend, creating 'lakes' in residential gardens. 

Jean Sutherland, 58, a Westmead resident said: “Out the back, what would usually be green, is completely covered in water and there is no way you could tell that it was anything other than a lake.

“Our garden is a quarter flooded; my neighbour’s garden is pretty much fully flooded. Their garden is just part of a sheer, big lake.”

Jean captured a photo of her neighbour, Michael Kneafley using a paddleboard to get around his garden at the weekend.

Ward councillor for Furze Platt, Councillor Catherine del Campo said: "Those gardens along Westmead have been particularly affected, and it’s not by the Thames overflowing and it’s not rainwater – its groundwater coming up.

"The speed that it came up over the weekend was quite shocking. From almost nothing to gardens being quite wet within 24 hours. As ward councillors, we’re concerned about the parts of the Borough Local Plan that have designated land very close to floodwater for building.

"I think the government’s new flooding maps that were released in 2019 show that things are expected to get worse over the next 100 years because of climate change and people in Westmead have experienced flooding in 2014 and about four or five times in the last 20 years.

"We know that’s an area prone to quite frequent flooding and we shouldn’t be building right up to it. What worries me... is that [developers] are planning to raise the levels of the ground – so where’s that water going to go? Will it go into people’s homes, I don’t think it’s a question that’s been properly answered yet."