Northwich floods hit independent businesses the most

Clare Niven, of White Ribbon Boutique, has also called on Cheshire West and Chester Council to hold and emergency meeting with retailers to discuss what they are proposing to do about it.

Clare, who runs the business with her mum and sister, said how they initially thought they might have avoided being flooded out at first, but that the waters came into the shop through the back door.

She said: "We actually started off okay.

"Someone sent us pictures and although the water was teetering at the front of the shop, it was actually around the back where it hit us.

"We've got four steps leading into the shop and it had come right up into the shop through the back door.

"The water inside the shop was reaching to the height of the electrical sockets so we've just had to turn the electricity off and move everything up high but everything was pretty much ruined anyway.

"We've got some stock that was higher up, but everything else in the shop has been totally ruined."

As well as having to deal with the costly impact the pandemic has had on business, Clare and her family also had to recover from a flood at their Nantwich store last year, meaning this will be the second such recovery in just nine months.

"Realistically, the thing that is worrying us the most is the work that's going to have to be done in Northwich to fix this drainage system," she added.

"Where we are, they (Cheshire West and Chester Council) were talking about having to dig up the front of the shop.

"Our business area has been interrupted now for the last two years, constantly, with the road works.

"There's been so many road works, people have stopped coming into the town.

"The way they've also fragmented the town, we might be better off further up the High Street, but it's trying to find a property, with the rents being extortionate for what the footfall of the town is.

"We trade in two other areas so we know what should be expected for that footfall.

"The thing is, where all the flooding is, its affected mostly all the independents and they're the people who've put all their blood, sweat and tears trying to keep their businesses afloat during the last year.

"They've been the ones hardest hit by it all and now this.

"As a businesses owner, you've got to think to yourself, is it worth me putting thousands of pounds into this shop now when they (the council) might dig the front of my shop up and I won't be able to trade for two or three months if and when we get out of lockdown."

Clare has called on Cheshire West and Chester Council to be more upfront with business owners in the town and has called on them to hold an emergency meeting to discuss its plans for the future.

"If the council said to us, 'we're going to do this work' and gave us a rough idea how long it would take, we'd be able to make an informed decision," she said.

"I know they put the flood defences in, but surely if they got an expert in at the time, they surely would have been able to tell them about the ramifications on the drainage system, because it has been a lot worse this time.

"There has to be some form of answers and accountability for what's going on in the town, especially with regard to the rising rents and the declining footfall.

"They should really hold an emergency meeting now, even if it's a virtual one, with retailers, to say what support they're going to offer and what their plans are.

"But are where we are.

"We try our best to be a really positive company and we always have the attitude of 'just put your big girl pants on and crack on'."