Flood Risk Assessment in Whaley Bridge

A flood risk assessment in Whaley Bridge has to deal with water from two directions. The River Goyt and surface water flooded 17 homes and 11 businesses in the town between 27 and 31 July 2019, and on 1 August the spillway of Toddbrook Reservoir, directly above the town, began to fail. Our consultants write flood risk assessments in Whaley Bridge for planning, for buyers and lenders, and for insurers, and prepare sequential and exception tests and surface water drainage strategies as separate reports. Reports for sites in Whaley Bridge come from Unda Consulting Limited, a CIWEM Business Partner.

Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, is taken here as the ONS built-up area: the town centre around Market Street and the canal basin, Bingswood to the north and Horwich End to the south, all in the SK23 postcode district. Furness Vale downstream and Bridgemont, where Black Brook meets the Goyt, sit outside that outline, as do Taxal and Fernilee up the valley. High Peak Borough Council decides planning applications in the town, and Derbyshire County Council is the lead local flood authority for surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses. The rest of the county is covered on our Derbyshire page.

On 31 July 2019 the Goyt reached 2.46 m at the Goytside Farm gauge downstream of the town, the highest level the station has recorded. The next day concrete panels on the Toddbrook spillway gave way, and about 1,500 residents were evacuated, some of them for six nights.

To discuss a site in Whaley Bridge with one of our flood risk consultants, call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk.

The Goyt, Todd Brook and the Peak Forest Canal through Whaley Bridge

Three bodies of water meet in the town centre. The River Goyt runs north along the valley floor from the Errwood and Fernilee reservoirs, Todd Brook comes down from Toddbrook Reservoir to join it, and the Whaley Bridge arm of the Peak Forest Canal ends at the wharf and transhipment warehouse beside them. On the southern edge, Randall Carr Brook and the feeder channel from Combs Reservoir pass through Horwich End.

The difference between a main river and an ordinary watercourse decides who has to be asked before anyone builds beside one: the Environment Agency for the Goyt and Black Brook, the county council for Todd Brook and the smaller brooks. Owners of land along any of them also have riparian duties to keep the channel clear.

What the Goyt gauge at Goytside Farm records

The nearest Environment Agency river gauge to the town is the River Goyt at Goytside Farm, downstream towards New Mills. It shows how fast the valley responds to rain, and its readings can be followed with other Goyt and Mersey gauges on our live river levels map.

1. 0.58 m to 1.54 m. The normal range at Goytside Farm.
2. Above 1.54 m. Low-lying land beside the river can flood.
3. Above 1.84 m. Flooding of property becomes possible.
4. 2.46 m on 31 July 2019. The highest level on record at the station, reached the day before the Toddbrook evacuation.

The town's own warning area, River Goyt at Whaley Bridge, names Rotary Business Park, Buxton Road, Wheatsheaf Close, Forge and Wharf Road, Market, Bridge and George Streets, Bingswood Road and Avenue, Wood Brook Court and Woodbrook, and some units on Bingswood Industrial Estate. A gauge reading or a warning describes the river. A site-specific assessment compares a building's floor levels and escape route with modelled flood levels, including an allowance for climate change.

Screen an address from Horwich End to Bingswood

Enter a postcode below to screen a Whaley Bridge site against Environment Agency data, or open the full flood risk map. The coral line is the ONS built-up area: it takes in Horwich End and Bingswood and leaves out Furness Vale, Taxal and Fernilee.

July and August 2019 in Whaley Bridge: the river first, then the dam

The 2019 event is remembered mostly for the reservoir. High Peak's flood study records that the town had already flooded from the Goyt and from surface water before the spillway gave way.

1. 27 to 31 July 2019. Two spells of heavy rain push the Goyt out of its channel and overload local drainage; 17 homes and 11 business premises in Whaley Bridge flood internally.
2. 31 July. The Goyt peaks at 2.46 m at Goytside Farm, still the station's record.
3. 1 August. Panels on Toddbrook's auxiliary spillway are found damaged, and about 1,500 residents leave their homes as a precaution.
4. The following days. Canal & River Trust staff, Derbyshire Fire & Rescue, Derbyshire Police and the Environment Agency pump more than a billion litres out of the reservoir, while Chinook helicopters drop aggregate onto the spillway.
5. 16 March 2020. The independent review led by Professor David Balmforth is published. It finds the spillway was inadequate for the probable maximum flood, made worse by intermittent maintenance, and the government accepts all 22 recommendations.

Older records are thinner. The Environment Agency's recorded outlines show the Goyt flooding the Whaley Bridge water treatment works in October 1998, and Derbyshire County Council lists Whaley Bridge among the places covered by its formal Section 19 flood investigations, with the report available from its flood team on request.

Toddbrook, Errwood, Fernilee and Combs: reservoir risk for a Whaley Bridge site

Four large reservoirs sit in the catchments above the town, and the breach maps for each of them cross Whaley Bridge. Under the inspection regime of the Reservoirs Act 1975 a breach is very unlikely, but it can come with little warning and great force, so High Peak's flood study asks applicants to treat it as a residual risk rather than leave it out.

Toddbrook itself has been rebuilt. For the Canal & River Trust, Kier built a new weir, tumble bay, stepped spillway channel and stilling basin; the reservoir engineer certified the works complete in February 2026, refilling began on 27 April 2026, and the Trust expects the total cost of the incident to be around £50 million. The new spillway makes a repeat of 2019 far less likely. It does not take the reservoirs out of a planning assessment, which still reads the breach mapping, asks the owner about emergency drawdown and checks whether people on the site could get clear in time.

Our guide to reservoir flooding explains how breach maps are produced, and our article on why dam breach data is withheld covers what an applicant can and cannot obtain from an owner.

Gritstone slopes, the canal and the sewers under Whaley Bridge

Rain on the steep sandstone and mudstone hillsides either side of the valley reaches the Goyt quickly, and on many plots the water arrives from the slope above rather than from the river.

• Surface water. Flow routes follow the roads through Whaley Bridge as well as the brook valleys. High Peak has no formally designated critical drainage area and no surface water management plan, so the evidence for a site comes from the national maps and the ground itself.
• Climate change. The town lies in the Upper Mersey management catchment, where peak river flow allowances for the 2080s are 41% (central) and 85% (upper end), and peak rainfall allowances for the 1% AEP storm in the 2070s are 30% and 45%.
• Groundwater. The SFRA maps more than 50% susceptibility to groundwater flooding along the Goyt south of the town; elsewhere the bedrock is mostly a secondary aquifer with thin superficial deposits.
• Sewers. United Utilities is the sewerage company for Whaley Bridge. Its records show 31 sewer flooding incidents between 1990 and May 2023 in the SK23 7 postcode sector, which covers the town and the villages around it.
• The canal. A canal holds water above the land beside it. The SFRA asks for a breach assessment on any site next to the canal, a risk our article on the Whitchurch canal breach looks at in detail.

For drainage, the Local Plan puts infiltration first and a sewer last, in line with the national SuDS hierarchy. On sloping ground with variable rock, soakaways need testing before a scheme relies on them; our ground conditions and soakaway checker and BRE 365 infiltration rate calculator give an early read before site tests.

EQ11, the neighbourhood plan and the 2024 flood study: policy for a Whaley Bridge application

High Peak Borough Council decides applications in the town against the High Peak Local Plan, adopted in April 2016, and the Whaley Bridge Neighbourhood Plan, made in 2024. Derbyshire County Council comments on drainage for major schemes of 10 or more homes or a hectare or more, and the Environment Agency on sites by the Goyt.

National policy is in chapter 18 of the August 2026 NPPF: policy F4 sets when an assessment is needed, F5 and F6 the sequential and exception tests, and F8 expects development to follow the 2025 National Standards for sustainable drainage. Our NPPF guidance explains how those policies are applied. The council began reviewing its Local Plan in 2023, and until a new plan is adopted EQ11 still applies. Taxal and the valley to the south lie inside the Peak District National Park, where the National Park Authority decides applications.

Bingswood, Macclesfield Road and the canal basin: development beside the Goyt

The town's allocated sites sit either on the valley floor or on the slopes above it, so each of them meets either the river or runoff from the slope above.

• Bingswood (Policy DS11). 6.8 ha of business and mixed use beside the Goyt, with about 75 homes possible on 2.5 ha and a new bridge access. The policy requires a site-specific flood risk assessment with mitigation agreed with the Environment Agency; part of the land is in Flood Zone 2, and the land in Zones 2 and 3 lies almost entirely within the 8 m strip kept clear along the river.
• South of Macclesfield Road (Policy DS16). A 3.68 ha greenfield slope allocated for about 83 homes; outline permission for up to 107 homes on this and adjoining land was granted in May 2015. Runoff from the field is the main drainage question.
• Hogs Yard. 1.7 ha of greenfield land north of the Goyt and east of the Tesco store, where the plan allows business, hotel, leisure and tourism uses.
• The canal basin. The neighbourhood plan's policy on the Peak Forest Canal and the transhipment warehouse covers the town's historic core, where Wharf Road and Market Street fall inside the Goyt warning area.

Smaller proposals are more common: extensions, conversions of mill buildings and single homes on infill plots. Many minor schemes in Flood Zones 2 and 3 can follow the Environment Agency's standing advice on floor levels and resilience, while new dwellings and changes of use need the full assessment.

Extensions, conversions and new homes: which Whaley Bridge proposals need an assessment

Whether a proposal in Whaley Bridge needs an assessment depends on its flood zone, its size and its use, and in this town on the reservoirs and the canal as well.

Where a sequential test is required, the council looks at whether reasonably available sites at lower risk exist, and the area of search is set by what the scheme is for. Most of the level land in Whaley Bridge lies along the Goyt, so the test has to explain why sites on higher ground could not serve the same purpose.

Reports for riverside, reservoir-edge and hillside sites in Whaley Bridge

A buyer on Bridge Street and the promoter of the Bingswood land need different reports, and several Whaley Bridge sites need more than one.

• Applications by the Goyt. Homes and businesses on the valley floor, from Horwich End to Bingswood, need a flood risk assessment for planning that answers Policy EQ11 and the Environment Agency.
• River, reservoir and rain together. A flood risk assessment for a Whaley Bridge site weighs the Goyt, Todd Brook, the four reservoirs, the canal and runoff from the hillsides in one report.
• Before exchange. Searches often flag the streets in the Goyt warning area, and a flood risk survey for property purchase looks at the house itself and its floor level.
• Housing on the valley floor. Housing on the Goyt's flood zones, including at Bingswood, needs the sequential and exception test before the council can approve it.
• Drainage evidence for the county council. A drainage strategy shows Derbyshire County Council how runoff from a sloping Whaley Bridge site will be held back before it reaches the Goyt.
• Runoff from the slopes. A surface water drainage strategy sets the discharge rate and the SuDS features for a site where infiltration is uncertain and the Goyt or a brook is the likely outfall.
• Conditions after permission. Where a High Peak permission carries a drainage condition, our work on the discharge of drainage conditions supplies the details the council and the county need.
• Modelling the Goyt. Where national mapping is too coarse for a plot beside the Goyt in Whaley Bridge, or a Toddbrook breach needs testing, flood modelling gives site-specific levels.
• Warning area streets. Premises in the River Goyt at Whaley Bridge warning area, and sites below the reservoirs, may need a flood warning and evacuation plan.
• Insurance after 2019. With 17 homes and 11 businesses flooded in July 2019, owners facing higher premiums can use a flood risk assessment for insurance.
• Bingswood businesses. Firms on Bingswood Industrial Estate, part of which is in the warning area, use a business continuity flood risk assessment to plan for the next flood.
• Buying commercial land. Investors and lenders looking at Bingswood or the canal basin commission flood risk due diligence before a transaction.
• Employment space at Bingswood. Business units planned under Policy DS11 may need a BREEAM flood risk assessment for the flood and surface water credits.
• Groundwater beside the river. The SFRA maps high groundwater susceptibility along the Goyt south of the town, which a groundwater flood risk assessment examines.
• Sewer capacity. United Utilities' sewer flooding records in SK23 7 make a foul drainage strategy worth preparing early for new homes.

Derbyshire, the Environment Agency or United Utilities: who deals with which flood in Whaley Bridge

Ring 999 if anyone is in danger from floodwater, and 105 to report a power cut. For anything else, the organisation to contact depends on where the water is coming from.

Anyone living or working in the warning area can sign up for flood warnings by phone, text or email. Downstream, the Goyt meets the Tame at Stockport to form the Mersey, which is covered on our Stockport page.

Questions about Toddbrook, the Goyt and planning in Whaley Bridge

For a riverside house in Horwich End, a conversion near the canal basin or new homes at Bingswood, ring 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk. Our chartered consultants prepare flood risk assessments and drainage strategies across Derbyshire and the North West, and a senior consultant signs off every report. Other towns we cover are listed on our areas page.