Large sacks filled with rocks pictured on the car park of Withington Golf Club. A helicopter would be used to lift them into place in temporarily plugging the breached embankment.

Environment Agency officials on duty

Throughout the area EA officials were on duty to ensure the safety of the public by blocking paths etc under the flight path of the helicopter.

Over two weeks and with weather permitting, the helicopter made hundreds of round trips and carried hundreds of sacks.

The pulsating roar of the helicopter could be heard from far and wide. 

Close-up view of sacks, 31st Jan

Some sacks filled with rocks, some with earth.

Looking upstream from Didsbury golf course side of river, 31st Jan

Looking downstream from Didsbury golf course side of river, 31st Jan

Looking upstream, 31st Jan

Note:  more sacks in place further along to temporarily reinforce river bank.

View upstream from Simon’s Bridge, 31st Jan

White sacks can be seen in distance. Note bend in river.

Buckled bridge, 31st Jan

Green safety railing has been buckled by the force of a log carried by the river. The log still jammed in railing.

Muddy car park at junction of Ford Lane and Stenner Lane, 31st Jan

Photo taken one month after flood; wellington boots necessary. 

Temporary repair to bank completed, 4th Feb

Hundreds of sacks filled either with rocks or soil were carefully lowered into place on the river bank by a helicopter and eventually covered with a strong, black visqueen damp proof membrane as shown in this photograph. The membrane was weighted down with dozens of smaller, brown sacks filled with earth or sand.  The repair work extended before and beyond the 40-yard breach and took over two weeks on and off to complete. The helicopter returned with a large one-ton sack every few minutes or so, hovering over the breach area for about 20 seconds. Similarly, it hovered over the Withington golf club car park for about 20 seconds before taking off with the next sack. The noise from the rotor blades could be heard continuously throughout the Didsbury and Northenden districts. Some people in Didsbury village thought it was some kind of military operation.

This view is looking upstream and Didsbury golf course is across the river.

As the photograph shows, the bags are lower than the permanent banks. This meant that the threshold for opening the flood storage basin had been lowered.

It was reported by Councillor Andrew Simcock, following a meeting of several hours with the EA and others, that the permanent fixes to the breaches in the river banks should be complete by the end of September this year. They will be repaired with terraces of clay which will be more robust than the earth and rubble currently in place.  (NB: work would continue into December.)

Jeff Smith, Labour MP for Withington, wrote the following in the Manchester Post: “Extreme weather like this is becoming more common, and we need to work together to stop these problems happening in future. I’m already having conversations with the Environment Agency and Manchester City Council to establish how we can better prepare for future extreme weather. We need long term work upstream to manage the water flow.”

The next two photos are of the same breach repair and were taken from the Didsbury golf course side of the river.

Plugging of breach as viewed looking upstream from Didsbury golf course side of river, 4th Feb

Plugging of breach as viewed looking downstream from Didsbury golf course side of river, 4th Feb

Plugging of badly eroded bank further upstream, 4th Feb

Plugging of another section of badly eroded river bank upstream, 4th Feb

The stretch of river bank shown in these two photos was very badly eroded on both sides – by both the raging river and the swirling floodwater. If not reinforced by the EA, it is quite likely that they would give way under the pressure of another high level in the river.