Dear Editor
Please find attached photos of the flooding on the A689 alongside the Weardale Museum in Ireshopeburn on 13 November 2025
There has been a very long history of flooding on this section of the A689 since the road was widened around the High House Chapel and Weardale Museum. The design of the camber of the road surface and the provision of an inadequate number of road gullies repeatedly led to ingress of ground water into the foundations of the Chapel causing major structural damage to the fabric of the building which has cost tens of thousands of pounds to rectify. A project is currently in progress to restore the Chapel and remodel the Museum and the Chapel to form a new Heritage Centre
I have lived in West Blackdene for 15 years and every time it rains heavily, the A689 becomes impassable due to flooding. As can be seen from the attached photographs taken last week, the number and spacing of road gullies remains completely inadequate and nowhere near the Council’s own County standards. Thanks to a complete lack of maintenance, the road gullies become blocked with leaves every Autumn so the rainwater simply runs over them and collects at the lowest point of the road between Ireshopeburn and St John’s Chapel. The regular flooding is inevitable
Can somebody please tell me when the County Highways Department are going to do something about this problem? Specifically, we need to see a programme of regular gully cleaning and drain unblocking in conjunction with additional road gullies along the north kerb line in compliance with County Highways standards. This work is long overdue and still threatens to discharge excess rainwater into the foundations of the Chapel
I will not be holding my breath for a positive response but we can live in hope
Yours faithfully (with very wet feet)
Philip Newbold
Trustee of The Weardale Museum
