The recent heavy rain got me thinking about the soon to be built and vast urban extension to Maghull of @1700 houses. I went to have a look at the site on Sunday 23rd February. The photos below really speak for themselves as they start with the waterlogged site as I saw it followed by where the water eventually drains to i.e. Dovers Brook and the River Alt.
Maghull East Site from Ashworth Motorway junction 23 02 20
Maghull East Site from Poverty Lane 23 02 20
Dovers Brook at Sefton Lane looking north 23 02 20
Dovers Brook at Sefton Lane 23 02 20 – the bridge is all but lost under the floodwater.
River Alt 23 02 20 looking south from Bridges Lane.
Having lived locally for over 50 years I can’t say I’m surprised by this situation as our low-lying land has always been liable to flood after heavy rain. Of course climate change is making those floods more regular and at times worse than they have been in the past.
What has not, in my opinion, been effectively resolved is how the floodwater is dealt with as flooding of Sefton Lane is far from unusual each year these days. What worries me is how the local drainage network is going to cope after a vast area of presently agricultural land (the Maghull East Site) is put under concrete, brick and tarmac. The implications will not be just on that site, if the drainage issues are not fully addressed, but potentially to the west of it to the River Alt which takes a great deal of Maghull’s surface water run-off.
That the Maghull East Site site will be developed is a given as Sefton Council’s Local Plan has already designated it for building on but, and it’s a very big but, what guarantees are going to be put in place that this building will not make a presently unresolved flooding problem even worse?
Sefton Council and the developers of the land have to get this right otherwise those of us who fought against the vast site being designated for building will be reminding the powers that be that they were warned about the consequences.
My thanks to Andrew Blackburn for the lead to this posting
Great post. One of several vulnerable parts of Maghull, as a knock-on effect is around Hall Lane and Northway. I wondered whether the flooding on the west side of the Northway service road near 313 is linked to Whitney brook?
The curse of predictive texting, my previous comment should have read – Whinney Brook not Whitney Brook, of course!
Yes whinney Brook floods because basically there is a small culvert that starts behind the houses in foxhouse Lane were( whinney Brook goes underground) I have the environment agency out regularly who advice me this culvert is not fit for purpose nowadays as it can’t manage the capacity of water hitting it, the pipe I’ve seen it myself is approx 2 ft x 2ft so all the water hits it at once an basically it can’t cope an backs up….. Bring on the flooding, the problem is it backs up to the land east of Maghull near poverty lane, exactly were sefton Council along with countrywide properties are building a few hundred houses, I predict the rest of Maghull will suffer extensive flooding because of this, ultimately if there is ever a blockage before the culvert it will also flood the development, the development pm as to culvert all the water from there into whinney Brook so obviously this culvert that is already not fit to take the volume of water it has to will be even more overwhelmed its a disgrace that sefton Council has allowed a denelopment in a area of significant flooding and. Adescision that we will scruti ise for years to come, if your reading this in 2026 like. A prophecy an you bought one of these new houses on land east of Maghull off poverty lane well I’m sorry, the problem of flooding will not go away as the culvert in Maghull for whinney Brook want able to cope from the outset but homes must be built am money made at any cost I’d go an buy a boat
Yes whinney Brook culverts just coming onto eastway around waltho avenue and this is the big red herring that nobody mentions and that sefton Council don’t wnat to fix cos it’s costly an goes under lots of houses , but basically no matter what widening is done further upstream near poverty lane development ultimately it all ends up here were it can’t all flow as the pipes to small an so it backs up I’d imagine when the houses are built on the land east of Maghull they will experience flooding soon enough and they can then read these posts years before and see we predicted this level of destruction nad flooding