THE local authorities in charge of flooding have said that their “well-rehearsed” pumping plan saved Malton and Norton from serious flooding when water levels on the River Derwent became very high at the beginning of April.

The level of the Derwent on April 3 triggered the multi-agency pump plan, which is the combined response to flood warnings from North Yorkshire County Council, Ryedale District Council, the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water.

The main river flood risk in Malton, Norton and Old Malton is managed by the flood gates and defences operated by the Environment Agency - but when river levels are high, drainage systems which flow into the Derwent cannot discharge so surface water flooding occurs.

In April, because of an improved warning system, all organisations were at strategic locations with pumps at least 24 hours before pumping was required and, as a result, the situation was controlled.

Cllr Luke Ives, chairman of Ryedale District Council’s policy and resources committee, added: “We saw a swift and effective response to raising ground water levels in April this year.

“This clearly demonstrates how effective the multi-agency partnership is when activating the Malton, Norton and Old Malton Pump plan.”

A debrief meeting of the agencies involved also concluded that pipes recently installed by the county council’s highways department and Yorkshire Water under roads and rail tracks reduced the road closures and travel disruption associated with pumping operations.

Leah Humphries, flood risk engineer at Yorkshire Water, said: “This is the first major flood event since we finished installing the new pipeline under the railway in Norton to make it easier to deploy the pumps and it was great to see the plan in action protecting the community.”