Business owners say they are ‘heartbroken’ after their premises were wrecked in the New Year’s Day floods causing damage estimated to be more than a million pounds.
Some tradespeople based at the Meadow Industrial Estate in Stockport say they are now considering giving up after being flooded for the second time in three years.
The business park is situated next to the River Tame, just behind Meadow Mill. More than 400 people who live in apartments in the converted mill had to be evacuated by the emergency services after its car park and lower floors were flooded, cutting off water and power supplies and leaving residents stranded.
The roughly 20 units on the industrial estate were also deluged by water which, according to its owners, reached a height of more than six feet.
Yesterday (Thursday), those working out of the units returned to find, in some cases, their life’s work washed away. Stock and equipment worth tens of thousands of pounds has been destroyed with bosses saying the total cost is likely to top £1 million.
(Image: Hewer-White Trust)
As they count the cost, business owners told the Manchester Evening News that the area previously flooded in February 2022, again causing significant damage, and as a result they were not able to get insurance.
Chris Fawley, 57, who runs Meadow Mill Wood Finishing, said: “I’m done. Last time it cost me £20,000-£30,000 to get myself back on my feet. But that time the water only came up a a foot or so. This time was much worse and you could probably double that figure and more.
“And what’s the point when it could just happen again. I would just be flogging a dead horse. It’s the customers I feel sorry for. I had about about half a dozen things I was working on. If it would have been a few weeks ago there would have £300,000 worth of furniture in here.”
Chris Fawley
Chris was on holiday in Spain but cut it short and jetted back late on New Year’s Day. “Even though I knew what I’d be coming back to I couldn’t stay there, I had to come and see it myself so I could evaluate and think about the next step. Everything’s unsalvageable.
“A mate of mine has lost £200,000 worth of machinery. He thinks it could bankrupt him and he might have to sell his house.”
John Hayes, 52, from Heaton Chapel, has been based at Meadow Mill for 15 years and has two neighbouring units, one a furniture workshop and one a storage unit containing classic cars and stock.
“We managed to move some of the cars before it started to get really bad,” he said. “But some we couldn’t. I moved my stock higher up and thought that it would be okay but the whole place is wrecked. It looks like a bomb has hit it.
“We came away and when we came back the police were here and weren’t letting anyone down. It was about 4pm (on Wednesday) we managed to get down. I don’t think you could print my reaction. It’s devastating for everyone. Especially given its happened twice.
“This is my livelihood and it’s in tatters. I have got no insurance as they won’t cover it. A few people have given their keys back today because they just can’t bring themselves to go through it all again.”
Steve Brocklesby, 59, who runs a firm making polished concrete tables, flooring and other furnishings said: “Its the best day for it to happen I suppose. Start the year s**t and then it can only get better from here. I’d actually sold most of my stock before Christmas and was due to move to a new, bigger unit around the corner.
“So if it’d have happened a few months ago, or a bit later, I’d have been absolutely f****d. I did get a call from the landlord but I couldn’t have got here to do anything anyway.
“When I saw how many emergency services here were I was expecting it to be really bad. You can see on the walls how high it got. It’s mad. I’m just gutted. I feel sorry for the people who are not starting up again. Its a disaster.”
The site is owned by the Hewer-White Trust who use the income from the rents and their other properties to fund its charity, which amongst other things offers independent living for vlunerable over 55s.
CEO Gemma Papp, 41, told the M.E.N: “We had a flood warning at 11pm on New Year’s Eve, so we came down straight away, just to see that what the height the river was and then we monitored the height of the sensor that we have, that can tell us how quickly the water is rising.
Gemma Papp
“I stayed up till two o’clock in the morning and it was just consistently rising. Obviously, we did a call cascade to all the tenants to say you need to come down, but even if they’d move things I’m not sure that would have helped as the water got so high.
“I woke up and got here for about 7am in the morning and there was police everywhere, we couldn’t get down and I knew then it wad a disaster.
The office of the estate manager pictured afterwards
“I mamaged to get down to the corner and it was absolutely shocking. We could not have imagined in a million years that this would happen like this.
“We are a charity and this is our income, And we’ve had a number of tenants say that their business has gone, they can’t afford to rebuild and you don’t get flood insurance here because we’re near the river.
“So nobody’s insured, except maybe one or two, so a lot of the businesses that have been with us for decades, say that their business is probably gone.”
The clean-up operation began on Thursday
“It’s devastating, it’s heartbreaking and everyone’s still in shock at the moment,” she continued. “It’s horrible. Just the look on people’s faces, you can just see the pain and upset. For now it’s just a case of clean up, make safe and then get the skips in clear out and then it’s all about what happens after that. “
Gemma said she wanted answers as to what went wrong. “As a business you put trust in agencies and I just feel angry and devastated for the community that we have here, and the businesses and the livelihoods that have been affected. Everyone deserves answers as to how the hell this happened,” she added.
Residents in the neighbouring say virtually all the cars parked in the car park have been written off and they have still not been allowed to stay in their homes as work to reconnect power and water supplies continues.