You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
ALMO chief reveals challenges dealing with devastating floods
An ALMO chief executive has spoken of the “extremely challenging” situation in tackling last week’s severe floods after residents at 81 of its homes were affected.
Paul Tanney of St Leger Homes, which manages 21,000 properties for Doncaster Council, told Inside Housing he had never experienced anything like the floods in his 37-year housing career.
“I was quite shocked at how isolated Fishlake was. The Red Cross had to take us there in an extremely large 4x4,” said Mr Tanney.
In total 1,200 properties of all tenures across Fishlake, Bentley and Scawthorpe in Doncaster were evacuated because of the floods. Out of these, 1,900 people had to be evacuated.
The council said that it had dealt with around 2,000 calls from concerned residents and that 40,000 sandbags had been issued to households. Around 200 army workers supported the relief effort. St Leger said it had also sourced 29 dehumidifiers for residents.
Nine community recovery hubs to help affected residents were also set up by the council.
READ MORE
St Leger was forced to rehouse 16 people living in its properties. Seven of these were St Leger tenants. Sixty-six of its properties have so far been surveyed, of which 48 were confirmed to have flooded.
St Leger has also lined up properties previously prepared for emergency winter planning to help rehouse people.
Mr Tanney said: “In terms of the resources it’s been extremely challenging and it will continue to be. We’ve made sure we’ve got a senior officer at [the council’s] tactical command 24/7. But the team has all stepped up to the mark and been brilliant.”
Fourteen St Leger staff volunteered on the support and clean-up operation in Bentley over the weekend.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, whose constituency is Doncaster North, has also helped to co-ordinate the relief effort and was in Bentley at the weekend with St Leger employees.
Meanwhile the Guinness Partnership said that 126 of its homes, comprising around 200 residents, across Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham, had been on red flood alert. However no internal damage was reported to homes, but Guinness said external damage had been reported to an unspecified number of properties and is “being assessed”.
In Sheffield, Yorkshire Housing was forced to close its office in the city, near the Meadowhall Shopping Centre, after being affected by the floods earlier in the month.
A resident also dealt with a flooded basement but did not have to leave their home, a Yorkshire Housing spokesperson said.
