Storm Imogen causes thousands of pounds worth of flood damage at Coventry hotel

[dutchman]

Thousands of pounds of damage was caused at a 16th century hotel over the weekend as a wave of floods hit on Coventry’s wettest February day on record.



The historic Keresley farmhouse – now converted into The Beechwood hotel – saw about six inches of water at its worst.

Roberto Perez, who owns the business, said he has lost about £1,000 in trading and it was going to cost about £7,000 to replace everything damaged by the flood.

“You feel so impotent when you see your livelihood just get destroyed in seconds,” he said.

“The problem is this is high season.

“We didn’t open the bar at all yesterday, but the hotel is open and the bar is open now.”

The floods arrived at 9.30pm on Saturday and didn’t subside until about midnight.

Roberto, 42, who took over the Sandpits Lane premises last July, added: “Some of my regulars assisted me in trying to protect the place as much as we could but it was an uphill struggle.

“We were trying to take the water out and removed the grills from the front.”

The 22-room hotel had four of its guest rooms affected. Water also seeped into the reception, lounge and the office.

“The amount of water just overwhelmed the drainage facilities we have,” said Roberto.

“My understanding is that this happened as well in the past, I think around ten years ago, according to some of the locals.”

In Spon End the River Sherbourne burst its banks behind cottages, flooding homes and gardens and causing some damage.

According to Steve Jackson, at Bablake Weather Station, Saturday was Coventry’s wettest February day since records began in 1892 with 32.2mm of rainfall falling in the city.

Elsewhere a chimney collapsed at a home as the stormy weather hit Bedworth over the weekend.

Fire crews were called to Hayes Green Road shortly after 10pm on Sunday after one chimney had collapsed and another was in danger of following suit.

The high winds and rain from Storm Imogen had caused the damage and firefighters from Bedworth were joined at the scene by a structural engineer from Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.

They then spent around two and a half hours making the properties safe and were also joined by a BT engineer as the phone lines in the area had been affected.

Meanwhile a two-foot “torrent” of water burst from a Coventry brook flooding homes, roads and destroying thousands of pounds worth of stock at a caravan dealership.

Fire crews from Canley were at the junction of Broad Lane and Banner Lane, which had to be closed after downpours on Saturday.

Broad Lane Leisure was totally flooded.

[Melisandre]

Keresley and this area is just at the rear of the Beechwood Hotel where they want to build all the houses ha some trees on the Tamworth Rd Fivefield Rd had fallen too blocking the road.

[dutchman]

In Spon End the River Sherbourne burst its banks behind cottages, flooding homes and gardens and causing some damage.

There was little sign of flooding in Spon End when I returned from Morrisons late on Sunday afternoon. Of course it may have worsened later.

The last time those cottages flooded was due to drains being blocked rather than the river level rising.