Man returns to flood-damaged flat after two years

A man who returned to his flood damaged flat after almost two years says "anxiety hangs over" him over further flooding at a nearby canal in Leicestershire.

Chris Cooper said he was forced to leave his ground floor flat at Waterside Close, in Loughborough, after it was flooded in January 2024, and only returned last October.

The 46-year-old says the area is prone to flooding because of a damaged towpath on Schwabisch Hall Way at Grand Union Canal, near Meadow Lane Bridge.

The Canal and River Trust said ahead of recent storms it had been "actively lowering" the water level in the canal to provide extra capacity and move floodwater away from the area, which had "proved very effective".

Charnwood Borough Council, which owns the flat, confirmed 20 ground floor properties had been flooded in the area across two incidents in 2024 and 2025.

Cooper said it has taken 22 months to return to his home, which had been repaired from the flood damage.

However, he said he felt anxiety every time it rained and most recently every night.

"I'm constantly looking out of my kitchen window every sort of half an hour to an hour to see if there's anything going on," he said.

"It's been a very challenging past two years and to have the threat of that happening again is very worrying.

"It does bring a tremendous amount of anxiety to the situation."

Residents have taken flood defence precautions by stacking sandbags in front of the effected building.

Cooper believes a stretch of towpath at Schwabisch Hall Way, outside Boat Inn, which has been damaged since it was resurfaced in 2023 contributed to the flooding in the area.

He said rising water levels had "eroded the soil from underneath the towpath" and caused sinkholes the "size of a lorry wheel" along the path.

"The canal bank is starting to sink and crack, and we're starting to lose the concrete structure," he said.

"The side of the bank is collapsing into the canal, causing furthermore sinkholes along the towpath.

"This is where the water floods over and it fills up down at my flat and stably caught like a swimming pool."

Cooper has pleaded for the damaged stretch to be urgently repaired.

"The anxiety is still hanging over us," he said.

"We could end up with being flooded again because no repair work has been done on the canal bank."

A spokesperson for the Canal and River Trust said: "We sympathise with Mr Cooper, as we know just how devastating it is when your home is flooded.

"Our engineers have inspected the section multiple times and found no evidence of a drop in the level of the path."

The trust said flooding in 2024 was "some of the worst on record" and it had since been working with local authorities, the Environment Agency and other flooding bodies "to try and alleviate the impact in Loughborough as much as possible".

"Ahead of recent storms we've been actively lowering the water level in the canal to provide extra capacity and move floodwater away from the area, and this has proved very effective," they said.

"We understand that this may not fully ease Mr Cooper's concerns, but we'll continue to work with the relevant flooding bodies to manage the situation in Loughborough as best as we possibly can."

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