A forecourt is battling to get back on its feet three weeks after being flooded during Storm Bert.
Billing Service Station in Little Billing, Northamptonshire was closed for three days when parts of the site were submerged under two feet of floodwater. Storm Bert swept through much of England for three days in late November.
Mitesh Patel, who works in the family business, a BP petrol station with a Premier store, says fuel sales are still down by a third, while revenue in the retail outlet has reduced by up to a half.
However, Mitesh counts himself lucky. Although the outlet’s fish and chip shop suffered £17,000 worth of damage, he says the convenience store itself had only minor water seepage and the fuel tanks were unaffected, after the banks of the nearby River Nene were breached.
The business was not insured for flooding – a decision Mitesh defends because he says the cost of the premiums over the 33 years his family has run the site would have outweighed the cost of the latest damage.
“We count ourselves very lucky that we were not, unlike many people here, too badly affected and can still trade,” says Mitesh. A neighbouring caravan site was so badly flooded that residents could be out of their homes for months. One owner came to the forecourt to buy cat litter to soak up the water from their carpet, he says.
Billing Service Station remained open while locals helped evacuate families on trucks and tractors from the caravan park. “We gave the drivers helping with the evacuation free hot drinks, and a lot of people were needing essentials – food to go, tins, milk bread and lots of alcohol,” he says.
But although the shop still traded during the week of the floods, its sales were down by 95%.
The business relies on the caravan park for much of its business – most residents had still to return to their homes this week as electricity had not been restored.
