Wellholme Park, Brighouse: Much-loved Yorkshire park re-opens to public after flood works

“Welcome back, Wellholme Park” – that was the message from Brighouse families who came in their numbers to have a look at changes made following flood alleviation work.

One of the key parts of £31 million worth of work to better protect some homes and a lot of businesses in the town, a special open day marked the project’s completion.

It has been closed for two years to the public while the work has been undertaken.

Brighouse has suffered serious flooding several times in recent decades, most notably on Boxing Day 2015.

As well as lots of Environment Agency and partner staff on hand to explain things to visitors, information boards also set out how the changes will work to better protect the town.

People also learned how the scheme has worked with nature to do this, with benefits for the park’s human and wildlife visitors.

With spacious paths winding past Clifton Beck and through wildflower meadows and wetland habitats, all bathed in sunshine, lots of early arrivals took the opportunity to have a look at the completed work.

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport, Coun Darren Commons, said it was fantastic to see Wellholme Park, which he knew well from visiting with his family, back open again.

It had been much missed, as the numbers attending proved.

“It’s great to have it back open for the community, and open for the school holidays.

“You can see how well patronised it is today – I’ve never seen as many people down there,” he said.

Coun Commons said the finished work looked good and there was a lot more going on for visitors.

He was also impressed with the partnership work and technical aspects of the project – engineering and construction partners Arup and BAM working with the Environment Agency, Calderdale Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority to realise a strong scheme.

Some pioneering techniques – using hydrogen plant for the first time – was also pleasing.

Affected Brighouse householders and businesses had counted the high cost of damage from past flooding events, and the better protection was also economically important, said Coun Commons.

“It will protect businesses going forward and hopefully that will attract more businesses into Brighouse,” he said.

Senior flood risk adviser for the Environment Agency, Paul Swales, said Wellhole Park’s re-opening to the public was a “fantastic milestone” for the Brighouse Flood Alleviation Scheme as a whole.

“It’s not only an amenity for the community, but to better protect 414 homes and businesses in Brighouse,” he said.

Key components included two storage areas which can hold nearly 9,000 cubic metres of water – equivalent to 24 full sized swimming pools – when extreme events threaten.

These can hold flood water when the river is high, then when levels drop return it back into Clifton Beck, a process which takes one to two days.

The project has seen the scheme work with the landscape, not against it, said Mr Swales.

Some historical wall structures in the beck which had been used for past industry and redundant weirs have been removed – these had been barriers to fish.

“On top of that. we’ve enhanced the park by improving the pathways, landscape and general public areas.

“We’ve created wetland habitat and wildflower meadows, and created opportunities for pollinators, birds, amphibians and other wildlife,” he said.

Flood works on another Brighouse park, Whinney Hill, should be completed and the park re-opened to the public in the autumn, partners hope.

Although the timescale for completion of the overall Brighouse scheme has slipped to March 2028, there are challenges with any major projects that cause this, said Mr Swales.

There are some surprising ones – Mr Swales said one challenge involved stopping activity and safely and carefully relocating an adolescent badger whose sett appeared where work was to be done.

Storm Claudia last November had also caused problems including damage to landscaping work.

It was part of a climate change pattern of wetter and colder winters and hotter, drier summers, he said.

“We’ll never stop nature but this is a really good example of working with it and working with the natural landscape,” said Mr Swales.