Flooding is 'getting worse', say golf range owners

The owners of a golf range in Worcestershire have claimed flooding is "getting worse" after it was forced to close again when the River Severn and River Teme both burst their banks.

Joe Kibblewhite, whose family has owned the Worcester Golf Range for more than 40 years, said their 10-acre site can flood in two hours.

"I'd say the frequency of the flood is getting worse, and it's the speed the ground floods that is becoming increasingly fast," he said. "We've got about 10 acres, and it can flood in a couple of hours."

Kibblewhite added that the flooding in 2026 had been "one of the worst we've experienced".

This year has been dominated by successive areas of low pressure which have brought heavy and prolonged rainfall across many areas.

According to BBC Weather: "A series of named storms, including Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra, have been interspersed with brief drier spells, but a blocking area of high pressure to the east has led to consistently unsettled conditions for several weeks."

It has been one of the wettest Januarys on record for southern England, eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland.

And as a result, the Worcester business has been closed since 7 February, which has meant no money has been able to go into the range.

Mr Kibblewhite said Worcester Golf Range would "bounce back", but they would need a "miracle" to open again in February.

Asked when the business would reopen and what needed to happen, he explained: "There's no set time really. We're looking at two weeks now, and our record time of reopening is 13 days, but this flood will be far surpassing that.

"First and foremost, the water needs to go down, and it sort of goes down in patches. There is quite a large patch of grass in the middle, obviously nowhere near enough for golf balls to be collected.

"Then the ground itself needs to dry up, which again takes a bit of time."

He also said debris would need to be removed, and each golf ball would then need to be picked up and washed by hand to avoid using machinery on the wet ground.

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