‘Risk to life’ on street where woman, 83, drowned in flood

A street where an 83-year-old woman drowned after water filled her home during Storm Babet still poses a deadly risk to its residents, a coroner has said.

Maureen Gilbert was found “floating in the water” by her son Paul at her home in Tapton Terrace, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on 21 October 2023 after the nearby River Rother burst its banks.

A rescue operation the night before was halted due to the dangerous conditions, with a message to return to the property the following day not communicated.

Coroner Matthew Kewley, who concluded an inquest into Mrs Gilbert’s death on Friday, said the street was still as much of a risk to life as it had been when it first flooded in 2007.

During his short narrative verdict at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court, Mr Kewley said he placed no blame on Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) for its actions at Tapton Terrace, against the backdrop of the brigade fielding about 1,600 emergency calls across two days, and its control room dealing with two separate systems failures.

But he said he intended to issue a prevention of future deaths report highlighting the risk to residents on Tapton Terrace, to the relevant government minister, the Environment Agency, and Derbyshire County Council.

He said: “We have heard evidence of ongoing discussions of what might happen and could happen, and this will come down to funding, which is no business of mine.

“But it doesn’t take away from my concern that Tapton Terrace is in the same position it was in 2007 and again in 2023, and someone has now lost their life.”

Mr Bewley ruled Mrs Gilbert “died in her home due to drowning in flood waters due to Storm Babet”.

Speaking on the steps of Chesterfield Town Hall following the inquest, Mr Gilbert said “if the water comes as quick” as it did during Storm Babet, then lives remained at risk.

He added: “There’s no guarantee when it is going to happen, but if we went with every flood warning there is, we’d be evacuating the houses at least every week in the winter.

“I checked the river levels [the night Maureen died] and I was happy with them, but it just comes from nowhere, and it comes that fast that you just cannot stop it.”

He added that the fire brigade “did everything they could” and their actions also stopped him from entering the water himself to attempt a rescue.

He said: “The failings of the system going down and messages not being passed on is hard, because if that had have happened and the fire service had have gone in and found my mum, I wouldn’t have had to find her.

“It has been one of my biggest nightmares since that day, finding my mum, but systems do go down.”

The River Rother burst its banks at multiple points in Chesterfield as the UK was battered by Storm Babet on 20 October.

About 400 properties in Chesterfield were flooded, including Mrs Gilbert’s home, two doors up from the house she had been born in and on the street she had lived on all her life.

Council workers delivering sandbags to the low-lying street, which was a known flood risk, had raised the alarm to 999 earlier that day – that an elderly resident was in the property.

Mr Gilbert had later spoken to his mother by phone and been told “the water is coming in”.

He lost contact and rung the emergency services.

Fire crews from Staveley, and then a specialist water rescue team from Derby, had attended and attempted to come to her aid twice.

But due to the dangerous conditions, with high waters meaning the rescue teams were “fully buoyant” while trying to reach the property, falling light levels and difficulties gaining access to the property, a decision was made to leave the scene and return the following morning after the sun had risen.

This request to recheck the property the next morning was mislogged due to a failure in the fire service’s control room systems, the inquest heard.

DFRS told the inquest it “fell short” by not returning to the property.

Deputy chief fire officer, Clive Stanbrook, said after the hearing: “I want to give assurances that we have already learned from this incident; we have invested heavily in our systems and we have made changes to our operational processes, something noted by the coroner.

“The coroner was in no doubt that the firefighters who attended did all that they reasonably and safely could to save Maureen’s life, and he went on to say that he was satisfied that the outcome would not have been different had the reinspection taken place.”

The inquest heard the street had a history of flooding, with floods in 2007 described as “the biggest thing to happen” to Mrs Gilbert, who had marked her walls with a pen to show the level the water had reached.

Flood defences had been installed at the property itself following the floods, but these only reached 0.6m in height, and the inquest was told they were only to help mitigate damage from flooding.

A report commissioned by the Environment Agency after the 2007 incident had suggested measures, including installing holding reservoirs on the River Rother and the River Hipper upstream, building defences along both banks at Tapton Terrace, and replacing nearby bridges to allow water to flow better away from the street.

But the inquest heard it had been decided that all but the River Rother reservoir scheme were deemed either not cost effective or too expensive to fund at the time.

Derbyshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after Mrs Gilbert’s death.

The force said the referral was mandatory due to officers being involved with the evacuation of homes in the area.

The government has previously said the Environment Agency was working to “fully review what happened”.