{"id":13962,"date":"2020-06-10T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T16:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawkins.biz\/?post_type=case_study&p=13962"},"modified":"2025-09-04T16:57:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T15:57:44","slug":"high-water-and-the-high-court-hawkins-evidence-helps-with-flood-claim","status":"publish","type":"case_study","link":"https:\/\/www.hawkins.biz\/case_study\/high-water-and-the-high-court-hawkins-evidence-helps-with-flood-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"High Water and the High Court: Hawkins Evidence Helps with Flood Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In the case of Tayton and Tayton -v- (1) Warwickshire County Council and (2) Rugby Borough Council, the Taytons (the Claimants) purchased Brookside Cottage and a neighbouring field in 2013, with the intention of building a small housing development on the field. A watercourse flows in a southerly direction along the eastern boundary of the field, and thereafter through two highway culverts, as indicated in the plan below. The Taytons submitted a planning application to develop the field in 2016, but this was refused by Rugby Borough Council (the local planning authority) for several reasons; one of which was in relation to the risk of flooding. They submitted a second planning application but this was also refused and a subsequent appeal was dismissed.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Plan showing the field, the watercourse and the culverts.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The first of the two culverts is owned by Warwickshire County Council; although the Claimants alleged that Rugby Borough Council owned the second culvert, Rugby Borough Council disputed this. The Claimants alleged that the risk of flooding arose because both culverts had insufficient capacity, which they also claimed had caused the field to flood on several occasions. They brought a claim in nuisance against both councils; the claim included the cost of a flood management scheme and lost profit on the proposed development. They also sought an injunction to require the councils to enlarge the culverts (at a likely cost of more than \u00a3300,000 to Warwickshire County Council alone), based on established principles set out in\u00a0Bybrook Barn Garden Centre -v- Kent County Council [2001]<\/em>. Weightmans solicitors instructed\u00a0Mr Richard Keightley<\/a>\u00a0of Hawkins to investigate the extent and cause of the flood risk to the Claimants\u2019 property, on behalf of Warwickshire County Council\u2019s insurer. The case was heard in a six day trial at the Technology and Construction division of the High Court in November 2019. Warwickshire County Council\u2019s case was put by Mr Jonathan Mitchell of counsel, with evidence given by Expert Witnesses for all three parties.<\/p>

The Claimants\u2019 expert relied on a computer model of the watercourse, which had been developed previously to support the planning applications. The model suggested that the field was at risk of flooding from the watercourse overtopping its banks, and that enlarging the culverts would reduce the risk of flooding, while removing the culverts would remove that risk of flooding. The Claimants\u2019 expert concluded that the model showed that the culverts were causing the watercourse to \u2018back up\u2019 and flood the Claimants\u2019 property.<\/p>

Mr Keightley found that the model was not accurately replicating the water levels in the watercourse and frequent flooding of the field, which were shown in the Claimants\u2019 photographs. He explained that there were several reasons for this, including the methodology that had been used to model the catchment hydrology (which underestimated the flow in the watercourse when compared to other methods). Most crucially however, the parameters used in the model did not replicate the actual hydraulics of the culverts and watercourse.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Warwickshire County Council\u2019s culvert; a photograph taken during Mr Keightley\u2019s survey (L) and a photograph taken by the claimants during a flood event (R).<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mr Keightley used the Claimants\u2019 photographs to demonstrate that the level of the watercourse downstream of the culverts during the flood events was higher than the model predicted. He also showed that the actual slope of the water as it passed through the culverts during the flood events was very shallow, and less than the slope of the base of the watercourse. Using \u2018first principles\u2019 hydraulics he explained to the Court that this showed there was a \u2018hydraulic control\u2019 downstream of the culverts, which was causing the watercourse to \u2018back up\u2019 and flood the claimants\u2019 property. In other words, the culverts did have sufficient capacity and were not the cause of the flooding. If they had been, there would have been a significant drop in water level as the watercourse passed through the culverts.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mr Keightley concluded that the culverts were not causing a risk of flooding to the Claimant\u2019s property. He concluded that the risk of flooding arose primarily due to the field\u2019s low-lying nature and limited permeability, and due to a hydraulic control in the watercourse downstream of the culverts (potentially overgrown vegetation and obstructions within the watercourse, or a smaller diameter culvert further downstream).<\/p>

\u201cI found Mr Keightley to be an impressive witness. Mr Keightley was rigorously cross-examined by Mr Darton and was criticised in his closing submissions for lack of independence. I disagree with that criticism. Mr Grime described Mr Keightley\u2019s evidence as of \u2018lecture quality\u2019. Whilst Mr Keightley was not always ready simply to agree or disagree with questions put to him, my impression was that was because he was a careful expert witness using language with precision, who sometimes did not recognise the terminology used in the questions or who did not want to give an answer that he did not consider was strictly scientifically accurate\u201d.<\/em><\/p>

The claims against both local authorities were dismissed, with the Judge concluding that the cause of the flooding \u201cwas obstruction of the channel, not any inadequacy in the design or dimensions of the culverts. In particular, I accept the evidence of Mr Keightley that it is likely that any obstruction or hydraulic control to the flow of the water in the brook was downstream of both culverts\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>

ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/span><\/h4>

Richard Keightley<\/a> is a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager and Chartered Environmentalist. He specialises in the investigation of flooding, water ingress and drainage issues, and has provided CPR-35 expert witness evidence in civil claims for both claimants and defendants. Richard joined Hawkins in 2017 as part of our civil engineering team, having previously worked at two major engineering consultancies, a water and sewerage company and New Zealand\u2019s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weightmans solicitors instructed Mr Richard Keightley of Hawkins to investigate the extent and cause of the flood risk to the Claimants\u2019 property, on behalf of Warwickshire County Council\u2019s insurer. The case was heard in a six day trial at the Technology and Construction division of the High Court in November 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13967,"parent":0,"template":"","experties":[62],"class_list":["post-13962","case_study","type-case_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","experties-built-environment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlood Claim Investigation: High Court Case Study | Hawkins<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hawkins provides expert evidence in a High Court flood claim, analyzing rainfall data and drainage system performance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hawkins.biz\/case_study\/high-water-and-the-high-court-hawkins-evidence-helps-with-flood-claim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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