As the flood crisis worsens, Chapman Consulting client, The
Pontoon and Dock Company Ltd, come to the aid of flood victims with their
temporary pontoon system. We interviewed Managing Director, Dan Bryant who’s been
working in some of the worst flood hit areas to get his first-hand opinion on
the UK floods.
“An almost
unparalleled natural crisis”. That was how one military
chief described the relentless series of weather systems streaming in off the
Atlantic, which have brought unprecedented levels of flooding to so many parts
of England and Wales.
Scenes on the Somerset Levels,
which have been under water since the end of last year, are almost medieval.
Filthy water, much of it contaminated with sewage, laps in the kitchens and
living rooms of houses around Burrowbridge, the latest village on the Levels to
be hit by rising floodwater.
In Egham, anxious residents who
have been watching the rising waters of the Thames edge ever closer to their
properties have now been forced to abandon their homes. The beginning of the
week saw a Duck tourist bus, more used to ferrying around overseas visitors,
help beleaguered homeowners escape the floodwaters.
Amidst these scenes of
devastation, Dan Bryant, owner of Pontoon & Dock, has been providing assistance to these communities
with his company’s system of floating pontoons.
Dan, himself a former army
helicopter pilot and tank commander is well used to providing and co-ordinating
emergency relief, but even he says he has never seen anything quite like this.
“Yesterday
we were down in Burrowbridge on the Levels, installing a floating pontoon so
that people can reach their flooded properties in safety. The water on the
Levels is now 20ft deep in places. You’ve got a wave system going -
yesterday’s winds
whipped the waves up so high you could have surfed on them. And the conditions
people find themselves in, well, unless you’ve seen it you can’t begin
to imagine what it’s like.”
Dan had nothing but praise
though for the local community. “The whole relief operation for
that village is being co-ordinated by one guy based in the King Alfred pub.
They’re doing
it all on social media, the community spirit is amazing.”
Dan is in no doubt that the
flooding has been exacerbated by successive government’s failure to dredge our
waterways. “I can
access a dredger in Somerset which could be used on the Levels. I’ve got
two more dredgers on standby that can be in the UK within a fortnight. At £325,000
each the cost of those dredgers is a fraction of what the clean-up operation is
going to cost.”
Up in Egham, The Pontoon &
Dock Company Ltd has also installed a floating pontoon to help local residents.
“The
beauty of these systems is that they’re flexible and easy to install”
said Dan. “They’re ideal
when you’re
looking at evacuating elderly or disabled residents as they can be brought out
of their properties in a wheelchair if necessary. There’s no need for people in that
situation to be hauled and manhandled awkwardly. It also means that
householders can bring larger possessions out of their properties easily and
transport them to dry storage.”
“We’ve got
1,000 square metres of temporary pontoon at our facility in Shropshire which we’re able
to get anywhere in England within 4 hours” Dan told me. “We can offer unparalleled
expertise in the current crisis and we really want to do all that we can to
help those communities affected by the floods."
The Pontoon & Dock
Company Ltd
Unit 3A, Blakenhall Farm
Cauldwell
Nr Rosliston
Swadlincote
Derbyshire
DE12 6RU
at Burrowbridge, Somerset
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