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'It's like Mrs Bates VS The Council': Pub landlady considers legal action over council flooding team's 'lack of action'
7 February 2025, 07:03 | Updated: 7 February 2025, 07:57
A Leicestershire publican who was flooded for the fourth time in 5 years says she’s considering legal action against Leicestershire County Council over a lack of action in keeping drainage systems clear.
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Jo Towle, who runs The Crown and Plough in Long Clawson, Leicestershire, has told LBC she now lives her life behind sandbags waiting for the pub to flood again.
She claims the issue stems from different sections of the drainage system being owned by different individuals and authorities, with flood waters leaving her feeling trapped, on her own and unsupported by the council, who she blames for allowing her pub to flood repeatedly.
Speaking to LBC from inside what used to be her restaurant, Jo said: “I just want them to do what’s right, and not just lip service.
"We can’t see the point in paying for more equipment, new furniture and to redecorate because it’s inevitable that we (sic: the pub) will be allowed to flood again.”
Explaining her frustration at the lack of action Ms Towle added: “This is known about. It’s been highlighted on council minutes for the last 25 years. There’s just never been a solution for this problem.
"I feel that I’ve no choice but to now look at taking legal action, after banging my head against walls for years.”
“I just want to be able to do my job again. We have a lot of widowed and old people living in Long Clawson. For those people in the village, this pub is their lifeline. We might be the only people they see. I feel like we’re letting them down – but this isn’t my fault.”
Jo told LBC that despite her fondness for the pub, the feeling of isolation has taken its toll.
“As much as we love being here, we don’t want to be trapped here. We can’t sell or lease it because of the flooding. We can’t retire. We are completely trapped in this business," she explained.
“My other half has really suffered. He’s had to just concentrate on his mental health because he’s struggling with it all. Chris is a person who needs to be doing, and knowing he can’t it has been really tough on him.”
“We’re still sat in a damp room, a month to the day that this building flooded. It’s a ‘Grade II’ listed building, and the council don’t seem interested in helping us protect it.”
Jo made an emotional plea for better joint-work between the borough and county council: “I just want them to work together for a co-ordinated response. We’re not near a river, we’re not near a canal, we’re not on a flood plain, we’re in a 1 flood in 100 years risk area – we shouldn’t flood.”
The council told Ms Towle that it was a “complicated” situation because the culvert carrying water is owned my multiple people or authorities, but she says it’s not complicated and the authority has a map marking who owns which section.
LBC has spoken to a surveyor, who declined to be named, about the issues being faced in Long Clawson. They stated the council could carry out the necessary work and recover the costs from riparian owners of the culvert using their own watercourse regulation policy, but also through section 21 of the ‘Land Drainage Act 1991’.
Ozzy O Shea, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transportation and Flooding at Leicestershire County Council, said: “It's in the policy that the councils can take that action, but we are the lowest funded county council in the country, we just do not have the finances to take the risk of all that legal action.
"If the government gave us more money, then we could do things better,” she adds.
Ms Towle's plea comes as Leicestershire County Council announced a million pound investment in flood protections across the county after a major incident was declared last month.
The area is also set to see a cash injection from Westminster of more than 2 million pounds, shared across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, for people affected by floods.
Cllr O Shea added: “We are willing to work with the landlady and the riparian owners. If we can use any of that, one million pounds, we will use it.”
“I’d like to say in the next couple of weeks we will be having conversations with those people affected in Long Clawson. We want to take this forward and make progress.”
LBC has contacted The Treasury for comment.
