Changes to Maidenhead park revealed in plan for new flood relief scheme

Significant reshaping of part of a Maidenhead park to accommodate a new flood-relief scheme is intended to ‘make residents’ lives better’, a councillor has said.

Plans for the Desborough Park flood alleviation scheme have been submitted to the council and, if approved, it would see the southern section of the park remodelled to combat flooding problems.

Independent councillor Geoff Hill, a cabinet member who represents Oldfield ward where the works are planned, said the project was part of ‘ongoing work in the community to try and make lives for residents better and stop homes and streets flooding’.

The scheme, previously known as the Brill Cross Flood Alleviation Scheme, was proposed following major flooding in Boyn Hill and Oldfield wards in 2007 and 2016.

Then, a deluge of rainfall overwhelmed drains and caused flash floods across the area.

Cllr Hill said: “The problem we've got with Maidenhead, if we're really honest with ourselves, is that the place is so built up that there’s not very many places for the water to run and escape to.

“This project is something that's been there been spoken about for years.”

Largest of the new measures proposed for Desborough Park is a new floodwater attenuation basin, with a capacity to hold more than twice that of an Olympic swimming pool.

The basin would be a landscaped grass depression in the ground situated to the southeast of the park.

Its position has been chosen to intercept water flows through the south of the park and in the direction of Norreys Drive Industrial Area, the plans said.

Water would be released from the basin through two small pipes when water levels in the Thames Water sewage system drop following the peak of a flood.

The scheme is split either side of Larchfield Community Centre and tennis courts in the park, with the new basin to the east and another area of picnic benches to the west.

Plants that help improve drainage and cope with damp soils are also planned, including dogwood, irises and reeds.

Cllr Hill said: “They [the basins] are being put in the best place we could possibly put them.

“As a park, yes, it will still function as a public amenity and carry on to function very well - just looking a bit different.”

A council meeting last year heard that the project was being funded by money from the Government, through the Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. The plans for the new scheme went out for consultation in April.

Questions about the effectiveness of the Desborough Park scheme for helping flood-prone areas around Larchfield Road were raised at a Maidenhead Forum meeting in September.

The Royal Borough’s flood risk manager Ben Crampin told the meeting that the ‘data was very much showing’ that the Larchfield area was having ‘similar impacts’ from flooding.

Addressing a guest speaker at the meeting, he added: “For now, the Desborough Park scheme wouldn’t provide any betterment for your area, but that’s not to say we couldn’t do anything in the future.”