'Reservoir refill marks new start for Whaley Bridge'

"It's no longer just about the reservoir being refilled, it's about how local people and businesses are gearing up for a new future."

Kerry Fox was among those evacuated from 1,500 homes in the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, when part of the Toddbrook Reservoir spillway broke away after heavy rain in August 2019.

After six years of repairs, including a new overflow spillway, the project finished in December and inspectors have now given the go-ahead for the reservoir to be refilled.

"The thought of people coming to visit here and more people knowing about this [town] and us being able to thrive again is really exciting," Fox said.

The reservoir is due to be gradually filled with water over the coming months.

As part of the project, the former walkway across the dam wall crest will be reinstated, with a new bridge over the spillway expected to open to the public by the autumn.

Once the reservoir has been filled, it will be restocked with fish, and work to construct a new sailing club will also get under way.

Plans have also been made for the town's Memorial Park, which is near the spillway, to be re-landscaped with shrubs, spring bulbs and mature trees.

A new playground is also planned.

Lucy Rennie remembers the evacuation as a "bizarre time" for Whaley Bridge.

She said her husband, a retained fireman, spent nights "digging the spillway to bring water levels down," which she described as "pretty scary."

However she did see a silver lining in the way the alert brought the town's community together.

"It was a bizarre time but also bizarrely exciting because it brought a buzz to the [town] and it brought that sense of community," she said.

Now the dam and reservoir are repaired, Rennie hopes the community can return to how it was seven years ago.

"I think it's incredible. It's bringing a real sense of joy and excitement back... and the sense of almost camaraderie again.

"There's a big committee working behind the scenes to bring Whaley Bridge back onto the map again."

Dilwyn Parry, Toddbrook project manager for the Canal and River Trust, said the repairs mean it will be one of the UK's safest dams.

"It's been a massive job. It's the biggest scheme the trust have undertaken - it's taken a lot of our resources to to deliver it," he told the BBC.

He said the new spillway is designed to improve how the reservoir handles excess water which should help to prevent a repeat of the events of 2019.

"The new spillway's primary function is to take away flood waters that are more than we need to supply the canal with," he said.

"Anything above a certain level spills over the two weirs and gets taken away.

"We can give people the assurance that this will probably be the safest dam in the country."

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