Krumbz open for business in spite of getting flooded yet again

Debbie Chapman and her team at ‘Krumbz’ cafe on the banks of the River Kennet opposite Town Mill are getting rather used to this. 

Again this morning, Saturday, inches of water were swilling around the tables, chairs and counter inside the cafe whilst the path outside was completely flooded to a level above the threshold.

This followed yesterday’s flooding where the staff had to mop up the cafe floor, and Thursday when the path outside was under a couple of inches of water.

“When will this end?” asked Debbie, “It’s getting worse every day”. 

Friends, including Val Compton who lives opposite in Kennet Place came to help mop out and by a little later than normal Krumbz was open for business.

“We haven’t been able to use the toilets for six weeks”  said Debbie, “Thames Water are aware of this, I’ve called them at least fifteen times since the problem started, and they still haven’t done anything” she added.  “They came here on Thursday and promised it would be sorted, but now look at this, it’s much worse”.

“This isn’t going to stop us, but we’ll keep open and look after all of our customers”.

Elsewhere Sumblers the Butchers in London Road also suffered from flooding but managed to keen open and serving customers, and several other premises in the low-lying Parade area were affected by flooding in cellars.

By 15:00 this afternoon the level of the Kennet had subsided to 0.75m, still above the level for possible flooding but well below last night’s peak of  0.96m, which was perilously close to the highest ever recorded level of 1m.

However, yet more heavy rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow, but although Krumbz won’t be open for business Debbie and her helpers may still have to come in to deal with yet more flooding if the Kennet rises again.

See:  River Kennet’s level is rising again as Thursday’s rain on upstream land reaches Marlborough