The purpose of house building should be to increase the stock of homes for local people. If new developments cause flooding of existing housing stock, and this renders existing housing uninhabitable and uninsurable there is no net increase in housing stock (What if floods left your home unsellable? 2 January Guardian).
Matlock repeatedly suffers from surface water flooding, from the hills above the town. In the past six years the centre of Matlock has been flooded each year: this never used to happen. Climate change linked to more frequent and intense rainfall , coupled with new housing developments in the hills above Matlock is causing a significant increase in surface water flooding in the town.
Planning for new developments was simply not paying enough attention to the impact of flooding on building situated directly below them. A clear example of this was a proposed new housing development for 430 homes on the hillside above Matlock. This area, called the Wolds, is greenfield agricultural land that currently acts as a sponge to soak up water during heavy rainfall. To attenuate surface water flowing from adjacent tributaries and enhanced by the new houses the developers proposed to build large ponds(Sustainable Urban Drainage) which would sit directly above the town.
The plan, proposed by the developer underwent five years of rigorous scrutiny by democratically elected Council and residents. It was rejected by the Council’s planning committee in March 2024, for several reasons, one being that they could not be confident that the public would be safeguarded from flooding from the proposed large drainage ponds. In addition, there was no affordable housing being provided and many rich biodiverse habitats would be removed.
However, the developer did not agree, and they appealed against this decision. The Planning Inspectorate hearing took place over 8 days from Tuesday 11th March 2025. However, at a secret Council meeting in January 2025, District Councillors decided they were no longer able to defend their refusal of this development allegedly because they might incur huge costs.
A handful of residents formed the Matlock Wolds Action group(WAG) just over a decade ago with the purpose of protecting this unique place. Some of the tributaries from the Wolds serving as the hydraulic engine of Richard Arkwright’s Industrial Revolution, and Matlock, then a small market town, became more prosperous and famed as one of the largest Hydrotherapy centres in the UK.
Over time, the WAG group grew stronger, in response to the intense and unacceptable pressures from both the council and the developer. WAG’s members and supporters, people from all walks of life, knew that the well- being of Matlock was under threat from yet more concrete and tarmac. The bond of a common goal, together with a deep mistrust of authority, grew friendships, mutual respect, trust and strengthened resolve. People pitched in with whatever skills they could offer. And they were prepared to learn. A clear example of citizen science coming to the rescue in a town in crisis. In September 2022 the British Academy funded a research study on flood resilience in Matlock. The research published in January 2025 found evidence of strong community network formation -localised networks that emerged during a time of crisis and existed for the 6 years leading up to the planning appeal.
Finally, things came to a head when the WAG agreed with the Council to form a Rule Six Party to support the council but when the council capitulated, the group was left to put up a solo defence. What surprised everyone was that the appeal was dismissed by the planning inspectorate, one reason being the risk of surface water flooding. When abandoned by the official experts and authorities, citizen science provided the crucial evidence in what became a modern-day David Vs Goliath story.
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