Business owner left 'devastated' after water seeped into premises

Owner Cotswold Canoe Hire - which is situated in Park End Wharf, Lechlade - Edith Cameron said last week's floods severely damaged the floors of their unit.

Concerns about rising water levels of the Thames - which runs along the site - were first raised on Friday, January 5 when the owner began to notice water coming up from the concrete floors.

The water levels of the river before (picture below) and after (picture above) the floods (Image: Cotswold Canoe Hire)
When she returned to the site the following day she was shocked and devastated to find that the whole premises was underwater.

She shared the following video of the extent of the flood damage with the Standard.

Ms Cameron said: "I was devastated when I saw that the whole building was ankle-deep in water.

"We were given sandbags but they were no help at all.

"I have been running Cotswold Canoe Hire since 2019 and the business has been in my family since 2015 and I have never seen the river's water levels be this high.

"This is by far the worst flooding we have ever experienced.

"I am shocked that the flooding was this bad after two days of relatively dry weather.

"Once the water began to decrease on Sunday some friends came to help and we rented a generator to help dry out some of the moisture which was very productive.

"The damp caused by the flooding will create mould and the carpets will take months to fully dry out. 

"I am going to meet with the landlord to talk about potential preventative measures we can put in place to stop this from happening in the future but I am not sure that there is much we can do.

"Our business was also severely impacted by the closure of the Halfpenny Bridge last year, and now we have these floods to deal with.

"I hope we can recover from this, it has not been a good start to 2024."