Our work at Worthenbury Meadows

Overview

Tudalen Gymraeg ar gael yma

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is reviewing the future of land drainage pumping stations in the Worthenbury Meadows area near Wrexham. These pumping stations play a role in managing water levels and supporting local land use, but we need to make sure we direct our resources to areas which provide the most benefit to people and communities in the face of climate change and evolving priorities.  This project looks to explore and implement sustainable options for the future.

Background

NRW manages three land drainage pumping stations in the Worthenbury Meadows area, near Wrexham in North East Wales:

• Wern-y-Davy pumping station
• Dolennion pumping station
• Gwern-y-To pumping station

These pumping stations help manage water levels by draining excess water from ditches and moving it into natural watercourses more quickly. While they cannot prevent flooding, they do help reduce the time land remains waterlogged, supporting agricultural use and local access.

Important to note:

Any decision to stop pumping at these locations would not impact the flood extent. The pumps do not stop flooding; they switch off when water levels overtop the embankments. Their sole purpose is to drain the land quicker than would occur naturally.

What does our work involve?

We are engaging with relevant stakeholders to understand views on two potential options for the pumping stations. Potential options being considered include:

1. Decommissioning – with a phased approach to ensure no unforeseen impacts on land use or public access.
2. Transferring ownership, operation, maintenance and management  – where landowners take responsibility for running the stations.

Work to date

As a result of the need to focus our resources on the areas at highest risk of flooding, we carried out high‑level assessments on 19 pumping stations in the North Wales area. These assessments reviewed their performance and the benefits they provide in terms of reducing flood risk to residential properties, and they informed the development of a long-term management strategy for each station.

The initial findings placed Gwern‑y‑To, Dolennion and Wern‑y‑Davy, along with several other pumping stations, in the Withdrawal of Maintenance category, and a recommendations report was produced.

As part of the recommendations stage, further assessments were undertaken to ensure the evidence base for these pumping stations was robust. This additional work included site visits to understand any site‑specific issues, environmental screening assessments, flood risk reviews, decommissioning cost estimates, consideration of legal and legislative matters, and a review of relevant experience from the Environment Agency. The findings of this further work aligned with the initial assessments.

What’s happening now?

We will be undertaking extensive stakeholder engagement in the coming months to fully inform the preferred option and programme for withdrawal of maintenance. 

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Next steps

This review will help us make informed decisions about the future of these pumping stations. Updates will be shared on this page as the project progresses.