'We still feel unsafe in flood-prone town'

Residents in a town devastated by a storm three years ago said they still felt unsafe and not truly protected from the risks of future flooding.

On 20 October 2023, Storm Babet resulted in many homes and businesses being flooded in Suffolk, along with countless schools closed and roads submerged.

Since then, local councils and agencies said they had carried out work to better safeguard parts of the county and support those affected.

But homeowners in Framlingham, which bore the brunt of the destructive weather along with Debenham, believed there was "a lot of progress yet to be made".

One of those residents is Chris Hobson, of Fairfield Road, who grabbed a suitcase and fled his house as "sentimental things got washed away".

Since then, he has spent tens of thousands of pounds to rebuild and safeguard his property, should something similar happen in future.

"We feel safer and better protected through our own financial output than we would have done before, but you can only do so much to protect your house," he said.

"You would hope that there was some sort of a plan. I know things are being looked at, but when you've been in that situation yourself, you just would like it to happen sooner rather than later."

Nick Cork, from Hour Community, has also taken measures to flood-proof the charity's headquarters.

He said he did still "worry" when storms were forecast and was "not sure a whole lot has changed" to protect Framlingham.

"Bits and pieces have been done, but if it happened again tomorrow, I think we'd be in exactly the same position," he told the BBC.

"There's a lot to be done to make us feel safe."

Explaining why Framlingham was flood-prone, Corke likened it to a saucer that can "catch quite a lot of water" and suggested "big cups around the edges" were needed.

That is something that local farmers in the area are hoping to establish in the form of natural hollows on their land, which can trap water and gradually empty it.

Bob Briscoe oversees one of 19 local farms looking to do their bit to better protect Framlingham, but funding is still required.

"The whole idea is when there's extreme rainfall, you're trying to hold back water above the towns and the villages upstream just enough," he said.

"We are all trying to help out, because we are the ones that are in a position to be able to help."

After the storm, Suffolk County Council, the lead local flood authority, commissioned a report to suggest actions to take to reduce future risks.

It has since increased resources in its flood investigations and grants team, which looks at the causes of flooding and collaborates with other councils and the Environment Agency.

In Debenham, the council recently completed natural flood management works upstream, to control the flow of surface water from the River Deben.

It said it continued to work with landowners and partners to "identify further opportunities for natural flood management across the county".

Meanwhile, East Suffolk Council said it had established a £500,000 Resilience and Emergency Response Fund, to ensure the council "can be more flexible and responsive to cover reasonable additional costs incurred by town and parish councils during an emergency event".

The authority said it had also appointed a "dedicated resilience officer", to improve community resilience to flooding.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said it was "working hard to safeguard the worst-affected areas, including boosting flood defences to 40 properties in Debenham, and improving warnings and flood management systems both here and in Framlingham".

The agency added it was updating its data to help manage future flood risk.

"Since the flooding of October 2023, comprehensive reviews of our flood warning system for Framlingham have been carried out," it said.

By doing this, the agency hoped "more properties may benefit from our warning service, and we have refined the thresholds we base our flood messaging on."

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