Cameras installed to monitor flood levels

Ten new cameras have been installed to monitor water levels in a flood-hit town.

Rotherham Council said the technology would provide "early indications" of flood risks in at-risk areas, such as Catcliffe.

More than 250 homes were flooded in Catcliffe and Treeton following Storm Babet in 2023, and the council has committed to ongoing alleviation work.

Sam Barstow, service director of regeneration and environment, said: "The cameras are accessible to us 24 hours a day but primarily around flood risks, so we'll pay much more attention when we know we've got heavy rainfall."

The 24-hour camera streams will be monitored by council staff.

The locations include: Orgreave Road, Catcliffe; Whiston; Wath; Templeborough, Treeton; Thurcroft; the town centre near the River Don; Kilnhurst and Dinnington.

The cameras are pointed at properties rather than the river, so they can capture surface water starting to collect.

Barstow added: "We've got information that comes from gauges on the river to tell us what the height is and that comes from the Environment Agency directly, who are primarily responsible for managing flood risks from the Don."

He added: "If we're seeing any significant large ponds of water on a particular road, then that would cause us to pay some attention and to get teams deployed down to site to have a look and assess the impacts of that and see what further steps are necessary.

"It's about increasing our capacity to be able to see what's going on across the borough - because it might not be the case that we're able to deploy 10 teams to all those different sites, so this gives our drainage operatives and our highways teams much better access to live information."

Rose Kent has lived on Orgreave Road in Catcliffe for 30 years and has experienced three floods. Since the 2023 incident, she has moved many of her belongings upstairs.

She said: "When we are flooded, we do tend to know first because it does come on the road. I live on the front of the road so I can see the river myself and I can see what's happening, so for me it doesn't give me any further reassurance having a camera."

Pete Devaux is one of the volunteer flood wardens in Catcliffe and the former chair of the parish council. In 2023 his bungalow was submerged in water and he and his disabled wife had to be rehoused.

"The cameras offer a bit of comfort but you'd think they'll only really be monitored when the Environment Agency publish a flood alert, so you wonder when else they'll be looking at them."

As well as installing the cameras, the council is also working on a "wider package of interventions", including a £6m project to replace a bridge between Treeton and Catcliffe.

The new structure, which will take up to five years to complete, will have a thinner deck to allow more water to flow beneath it.

The council claimed that the replacement would reduce the flood risk to 167 homes and 14 businesses.

There are also plans for a new permanent pumping station, after temporary pumps were deployed during Storm Claudia in November, when the river levels came within less than a metre of a flood event.

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