THE devastating flooding and bridge collapse in Tadcaster last winter could have been avoided, a new report claimed today.

It said Tadcaster bridge partially collapsed on December 29 - splitting the town in two - because the risk of water scouring had not been recognised by North Yorkshire County Council, and because the council and Environment Agency had also allowed silt and debris to accumulate in some of the arches.

"Water scouring that led to the collapse of the bridge foundations could and should have been detected in earlier bridge inspections and modifications made," claimed Brian Percival, a Tadcaster business leader, chartered quantity surveyor and construction litigation consultant who coordinated an independent investigation into the post-Christmas floods.

"Two of the river bridge arches had not been cleaned of silt and were totally blocked, one arch was partially blocked by river trash. A 30 per cent increase in water flow can be achieved if at least five arches are permanently kept totally open."

The report claimed the River Wharfe rose to unprecedented levels on Boxing Day - causing dozens of homes and businesses in the brewery town to be inundated - partly because water was 'dumped' into the river system from a reservoir upstream managed by Yorkshire Water.

It said the lowest reservoir in the Washburn valley, Lindley Wood, dumped water over the spillway in an uncontrolled manner after it became full. "This is perverse and contravenes the Floods Directive."

There was a water surge down the Washburn Valley that was detectable on river water level monitoring stations but was not picked up until hours before the flood, which fed into the Wharfe and contributed to record levels being reached at Tadcaster.

The report claimed that collectively, the owners of properties and the businesses in the town had lost an estimated £20 million in property values and business because of the floods.

The investigation, which also involved two engineers and two other local businessmen, found there had been inadequate governance of water catchment management, a failure to use reservoirs as part of the management regime, a failure to plan for climate change and to make the fullest use of weather information.

Mr Percival, whose own business centre near the Wharfe was badly flooded, said they decided to undertake the investigation when the county council had declined a Calderdale-style inquiry, which would have taken evidence from all, particularly the public, although there was now a council-led inquiry underway.

"All of the problems we’ve identified need urgent and specific central and local government action, for the risk of flooding is only going to increase as more land is taken for housing without adequate surface water attenuation, because the sustainable urban drainage policies of many local authorities are inadequate.

"All of the components in the Tadcaster flood and bridge collapse were preventable had there been adequate care and foresight.

“Tadcaster needs investment now. If we can permanently open at least five bridge arches and employ appropriate water catchment management, we stand a chance of avoiding future catastrophes of the same scale. Importantly, if this work is carried out we will save repeated expensive repairs and the collapse of business investment in the local area."