“I managed to reopen after five days of hard graft”

Rachel Jones, founder of zero-waste shop Weighsted in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire has been negatively impact by the recent floods caused by February 2020’s trio of storms but encourages the industry to be proactive:

“Due to climate changes and poor land management, Hebden Bridge isn’t able to cope with the amount of water we’ve experienced. There are ongoing flood management works that have run over by more than 12 months and for some reason – that we have yet to receive an explanation for – a long stretch of wall that holds the river back from the road has been taken down.

As a town we were relatively well prepared – many shops have floodgates, buildings have lime plaster and electrics have been raised. My toilet even has a special non return valve that stops the water coming up through the drains, although without cameras it’s hard to know where the two feet of water came from.

The community is pretty special here. We have great independent shops have had so many kind volunteers helping in whatever way they were able. One day a group of young girls turned up with cakes they baked. The chip shop came round with a bag of chips for everyone still working at tea time. The shop owners all know one another and rallied round to support the less fortunate.

I consider myself pretty lucky because I managed to reopen after five days of hard graft and scrubbing! Some people haven’t managed to reopen yet. Unfortunately very few of us have flood insurance due to the flooding five years ago but we’ve all worked so hard to reopen.

I really would encourage people from outside the area to come and visit, show some support and help us out by buying a coffee at one of our lovely cafés or spend a little money in our great independent shops.”

Food production has also been disrupted by the weather conditions, and the UK is set to experience long-term impact as a result. An NFU spokesperson told Speciality Food, “Prolonged wet weather has impacted many farmers and growers who are unable to finish harvesting crops and expect a severe delay in drilling and sowing winter cereals, which means higher costs on farm for feed and bedding.

Catchment wide water management is essential, including conveyance works, but maintenance of rivers and flood defences must be properly funded to protect urban and rural businesses, infrastructure and communities.”