Coronavirus lockdown hits Fishlake flood recovery efforts

Residents hit by devastating floods six months ago have had work on their homes delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The village of Fishlake, near Doncaster, was evacuated in November when the nearby River Don burst its banks, flooding approximately 160 homes and businesses.

Work had started to repair some homes, but it has ground to a halt because of the lockdown.

Some residents have been spending lockdown away from home or in caravans.

Heavy rain during the winter caused the flooding across the north of England and the Midlands, with South Yorkshire badly hit, particularly Fishlake.

There has been criticism of insurance companies and some homes are still not completely dried out.

Since the floods, mental health nurse Joanne Ambler has been living in a caravan on her drive - and the coronavirus crisis means she now has to work there too.

"The house is ready but there's no kitchen, no carpets, no furniture and obviously the shops are closed so you can't go buy any," she said.

"You've no choice, you've got to get on with it, I'm a firm believer there's always somebody worse off than yourself, we may not be in the house but we're in the caravan, we're here on the doorstep."

After an eight-week wait for insurers to remove the contents of their flooded home, work finally began on Dave and Sandra Liddle's property.

However, the work has been put on hold because of the lockdown restrictions and they said they were "resigned" to staying another three months in the nearby town of Thorne.

Mr Liddle said: "Once they got started it was going very well and then the coronavirus lockdown and everything just stopped.

"We're just in limbo, same as everybody else at the moment."

Pam Webb became one of the public faces of the Fishlake floods, memorably breaking down in tears on TV after learning she was not covered by insurance.

She worked throughout the Christmas period to get her spa hotel back up and running in the New Year.

However, Ms Webb admitted to having "a little cry" after closing her doors when the lockdown came into force in March.

She said: "You cannot help feeling worried - will the business survive this second closure so soon after the closure brought about due to the floods?"

Ms Webb said the village was committed to supporting each other "just like we did during the floods", using the support groups established during that time.

Church warden Peter Pridham said villagers had been continuing to clean up Fishlake while on their daily exercise, picking up flood litter from the river banks while continuing to uphold social distancing guidelines.

Mr Pridham said: "As far as I know the village has so far escaped any Covid-19 related deaths, but it is not a pretty picture, what has happened here will undoubtedly affect the character of the village for many years to come."

He also highlighted the problems people have been having with insurance companies and said this was having a "significant" effect on morale.

Labour MP for Doncaster North, Ed Miliband, said he had been working with constituents throughout the coronavirus crisis to try to get them back in their homes as soon as possible.

"I am incredibly sorry for what so many people are still going through," he said. "The floods were bad enough but I'm afraid some of the insurance companies have been too slow and too penny-pinching.

"Yes, it's been made worse by the Covid lockdown, which has necessarily delayed the work, but in too many cases my constituents haven't been treated fairly."

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