I am sure that all of our members are concerned with the recent and on-going events at Toddbrook Reservoir. At the present time the dam has yet to be declared safe for the return of the residents.

The BDS and ICE has been giving interviews to the media in relation to the on-going incident. I am sure you can imagine and appreciate that the number of requests for interviews has far exceeded our capacity to respond.

The dam is a 24m high Pennine embankment dam dating from 1831. Works were carried out in the 1970’s to provide an auxiliary spillway on the embankment. We have no doubt that a formal investigation of the incident will be carried out on behalf of the Environment Agency in due course.

The BDS will do all that we can to help share the lessons to be learned from this incident and to encourage debate in due course.

In the meantime our thoughts are with the residents of Whaley Bridge.

Alan Warren
BDS Chair