Future of flood-hit village pub under threat

Landlady Jo Towle woke up yesterday (Tuesday) to find the Crown and Plough at Long Clawson flooded.

Customers have launched an online fundraising page to raise £2,000 towards the cost of the damage with Jo and her family unable to claim on insurance.

She says long delays by Melton Borough Council and Leicestershire County Council on clearing the heavily blocked culvert under The Sands have led to multiple floods over the years.

The family are considering whether it is worth keeping the business going – it is the only remaining pub in Long Clawson.

Jo told the Melton Times this morning: “It costs me about 10 grand every time we flood so I have to sell 30,000 pints a year just to cover flooding.

"We are currently closed, everything is covered in silt and dirt, the cellar is all full of silt and it washes the sewage up so it is contaminated as well.

“I need to refurbish again but what’s the point when we keep flooding?”

The culvert Jo blames for the flooding is 193 metres long and runs under The Sands, from the bottom of Mill Lane, all the way under the doctor’s surgery.

She said flooding started in the village in 1994 when 30 new homes were built at the top of King’s Road and water was piped down to the culvert.

"The culvert was 70 per cent blocked on the most recent survey,” said Jo.

"The borough council keep putting through more planning for houses so more and more water is coming downhill into the culvert.

“It is an antiquated 150-year-old structure and it just can’t cope.”

Jo says her new sofa and carpets are ruined and there is flood water damage to her fridges, glass washer, cellar equipment, the coolers and the ice machine.

“We are angry because this issue has gone on so long,” she said.

“The culvert is the main issue.

“We’re not next to a river, like Bottesford, we’re not next to a canal, like Hickling.

“That’s why we’re classed in the mapping done by the county council as a one-in-a-100-year risk of flooding.

"But we are flooding every two years so something is not right.”

Jo has been landlady for 13 years, she went to the village primary school and grew up there.

She helps organise the annual conker championships and The Great Vale Show, which has raised £15,000 for village schools and the village hall in last two years, and Jo has also raised £40,000 for Macmillan Cancer Research with fundraisers in recent years.

She added: “I’m just hoping the councils do something now about this culvert.

"Our pub would be a big loss to the community if we weren’t here.”

Melton Borough Council said in a statement: “We value our local businesses and appreciate the importance of the Crown and Plough Pub to the community and residents of Long Clawson.

"We are sorry to hear that the pub has experienced a flooding event again and understand the devastating impact flood water can have.

"Melton Borough Council is not the lead flood authority, nor is it the landowner, and as such has no legal responsibility for clearing the culvert which may have contributed to the flooding.

"The culvert runs through land owned and maintained by various bodies, individuals and agencies meaning that the situation is complex.

"Our partners at Leicestershire County Council have worked hard to identify and engage with landowners to be able assess and understand the condition of the culvert and have also worked with landowners up and downstream of the culvert to assist the flooding situation and ensure riparian responsibilities are fulfilled.

"Melton Borough Council is satisfied that new housing developments approved in Long Clawson in recent years adequately deal with their own surface water run-off, and new developments are not required to mitigate any existing issues.”

The statement adds: “Following Storm Henk in 2024, our teams worked proactively with Leicestershire County Council as the Lead Local Flood Authority and have engaged with local councillors in relation to the ongoing flood risk, and will continue to do so.

"Partners have also liaised with the Environment Agency (EA) regarding opportunities for the pub to be included in available flood resilience schemes.

"Partners would value an opportunity to discuss this further with the property owners.”

Lead member for highways and transport at Leicestershire County Council, Ozzy O’Shea, told the Melton Times: “We appreciate this has been a challenging time for many residents and we’d like to extend our sympathies to villagers in Long Clawson who have experienced flooding in an event which has resulted in record water levels across Leicestershire.

“We have been working closely with residents and have spoken with the landlady of the Rose and Crown pub on a number of occasions, offering support and guidance on how to become more flood resilient, as well as working more widely with the community to help reduce flood risk.

“The culvert has multiple owners and passes through private land and we are working with the community to identify ways of improving the culvert’s flow wherever possible and supporting personal resilience.”

“We have checked the sections under the highway which we are responsible for, to ensure they are clear.”

Click HERE to pledge money towards the clean up at the Crown and Plough.