The Pednormead End project

The Pednormead End Project is a scheme based in the community of Pednormead End in Chesham. This scheme has two objectives; firstly to reduce risk of localised flooding and secondly to ensure the local culvert remains safe and does not deteriorate.

We are committed to managing flood risk and to the proactive maintenance of our structure, and Pednormead End is one of several flood risk management projects currently underway across the county.

Update - January 2025

We will soon install barriers outside the Queen’s Head public house on the junction of Pednormead End and Church Street. This will be a temporary measure to prevent vehicles parking on the footpath. Bollards previously in place have been damaged over the years and a suitable permanent alternative is being assessed. We will have a single overnight closure in place in February 2025 for our operatives to complete this work.

Later in the spring we will have several nights where our operatives will be working in the area using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to explore and identify any issues that need fixing.

We appreciate local frustrations with the duration of the scheme at Pednormead End. During this time, as well as working on design alternatives for this scheme, we have completed a number of other flood alleviation measures, both in Chesham and across Buckinghamshire. Our mitigation measures have helped to reduce the risk of flooding for local properties. We are currently reviewing the full impact of these additional measures to inform works on the culvert. Our first priority is the safety of the local community; however, we are reviewing proposed works to minimise disruption for nearby residents, businesses, and other affected stakeholders.

The flooding model review, incorporating the impact of recent schemes and to the latest standards, is currently underway and further updates will be made available through this page in due course. We will ensure that nearby residents and affected parties are kept up to date. Significant updates will be included in the Highways Highlight report, please sign up to be added to our newsletter here: Highways Highlight Subscribe | Buckinghamshire Council.

Previous works

You can see previous updates and details on plans for our work at Pednormead in the list below.

We've postponed the planned culvert replacement construction work on Pednormead End Chesham, which was due to start on 27 June 2022. It will now start in summer 2023.

This is due to technical issues found during our pre-construction surveys.

The other part of the flood scheme, Property Flood Resilience measures, (offered to houses impacted by internal flooding) is now close to being completed and this will help to mitigate against floods which may occur in the future for those properties at risk.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

If you have any queries, you can reach us at [email protected] or call us on 01296 382416.

Background of the culvert replacement

To help reduce flooding during the more frequent flood events, the existing piped culvert that carries a tributary of the River Chess under the Missenden Road is to be replaced with a precast concrete box culvert.

In addition to this work, a section of the Bury Pond culvert that runs under Church Street near the Queens Head Pub, will be also repaired. To help mitigate high ground water levels in the area, filter drains will also be installed on either side of the new box culvert.

Design

The design has been careful to ensure the size of the new culvert is suitable to fit into the restricted space available and ensuring that its capacity does not push more flood water downstream.

Project stages

The first stage of the project was undertaken between June 2020 to December 2020 and began by focusing on lowering and diverting utility services ahead of the culvert replacement.

Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the utility diversions and high ground water levels, the project was put on hold with the intention of resuming work in summer 2021.

Once again high groundwater levels in 2021 meant it was not safe to resume underground high voltage electricity diversion works at this time and the project was put on hold once again.

The replacement and scheme overview for Pednormead End

Planned work in 2022

The work planned in 2022 has been postponed to 2023, due to technical difficulties.

The planned work will take 12 weeks to complete and will be carried out in 3 phases:

Phase 1

Diversion of an underground high voltage electricity cable and repair of a damaged section of the Bury Pond culvert that runs under Church Street near the Queens Head Pub.

Phase 2

Replace the existing River Chess culvert from its outlet adjacent to the Queens Head Pub to the Missenden Road/Wey Lane junction and reinstate.

Phase 3

Replace the existing River Chess culvert from the Missenden Road/Wey Lane junction to its inlet adjacent to house number 5 Missenden Road and reinstate.

Resurface carriageway and replace road markings.

The project

The project is a £3.3m flood management project to limit future damage caused by flooding, including:

building a bigger culvert under Church Street
offering property flood resilience packages to every affected home

Benefits

There are multiple benefits of the proposed project, including:

improved flood resilience for properties against flooding
property owners will be increasingly self-sufficient and resilient during a flood event
improved safety and structural integrity of the culvert under Church Street
improved drainage of surrounding roads leading to less standing water, reducing the instance of pot holes, and therefore fewer maintenance costs, improved safety and reduced disruption
enhanced peace of mind, reduced stress and improved quality of life for property owners concerned with flood risk
businesses able to operate and trade during and after a flood event

Project progress

By the end of June 2022, installation will have been completed for the most part at all properties within the scheme.

This involved receiving listed building consent for 13 properties and Highways Departure from Standards (DfS) consents for flood barriers facing public footpath.

Next steps

The PFR scheme is in its final stages, with the following activities still ongoing:

snagging (final minor works at properties)
post installation surveys by the independent surveyors RAB Consultants
issuing of post installation flood risk reports (PIFRR) to homeowners

Reflections and Recommendations

View our Reflections and Recommendations document (PDF, 1.6 MB)

The background

Following an investigation in 2015, it was found that over 100 homes are susceptible to flooding in the future in Pednormead End, an area of Chesham located in South-East Buckinghamshire.

The cause of flooding in the past, and potential flooding in the future is caused by:

excessive surface water
water rising over the top of the banks on River Chess (caused by heavy downpours)
rising groundwater

Historical flooding at Pednormead End extends over 100 years, with the most extensive occurring in 1918. More recent flood events occurred in 2001, 2006, and September 2014.

In 2015, Atkins, a consultancy group, was asked to investigate a range of flood management options for Pednormead End. This resulted in the development of the flood management project.

Property Flood Resilience (PFR) packages

The Property Flood Resilience (PFR) packages provide property owners with practical and cost-effective measures which reduce the amount of water entering buildings.

PFR help to reduce flood risk by identifying:

products which are appropriate for the type of flooding experienced
requirements and constraints of the property itself
the needs of home and business owners

There is a range of measures which can be used to limit water entry including:

barriers on windows and doors
use of non-return vales to prevent backing-up of floodwaters
automatically closing airbricks and pump systems

We carried out a number of webinars in 2021. You can view our virtual event question and answer session summary.

Contact

If you have any questions about the Pednormead End Culvert replacement, or would like to enquire about how to participate in the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) packages, make contact with us.

Email: [email protected]