PUBLIC bodies have moved to reassure local people that there is little danger that a reservoir dam could collapse after an emergency was declared in Derbyshire at the end of last week.

The RAF was called in to help shore up the dam wall at Toddbrook Reservoir near Whaley Bridge after part of it collapsed on Thursday afternoon.

And about 1,500 local residents were evacuated after the Environment Agency said there was a “real risk” of the structure giving way after days of heavy rain in the area.

But Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency and Bradford Council all said reservoirs in the Bradford district were regularly inspected and there were no fears of a similar situation happening here.

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said: “Reservoir safety is of the utmost importance to us and our own reservoirs (134) are subject to a weekly inspection regime.

“They were all inspected on Monday and Wednesday this week following the damage to Toddbrook reservoir. As a precautionary measure they will receive a further full inspection today (Friday) which will cover the condition of embankments, upstream faces, overflows and drains where possible.

“The Environment Agency produce a report on reservoir safety every two years and their most recent report in December 2018 gave a clean assessment to all Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said reservoirs were very strictly regulated, inspected and maintained, as outlined under the Reservoirs Act 1975. Since 1925, there have been no dam breaks in Britain that have led to loss of life, although every year there are a handful of incidents that are managed to prevent such occurrences.

A spokesman for Bradford Council said its emergency planning team had no situations of any concern across the district at any time. He added: “There are no concerns over any dams.”

Back in 2014, nearly 800 residents in Silsden were warned they were at risk if a reservoir above the town burst.

Householders living close to six “high priority” sites – including Silsden Reservoir – were being sent letters explaining their homes are within so-called inundation areas, which would take the full force of flooding.

Bradford Council, which distributed the letters, was accused of creating anxiety amongst people and generating more questions than answers but it defended the move, stressing the likelihood of a reservoir breach was extremely low and there was “no cause for concern”.

Mike Powell, the council’s emergency planning manager at the time, stressed that all the reservoirs in the Bradford district were safe and maintained to “very high standards”. But he added: “We and other authorities such as the Environment Agency have a statutory responsibility to prepare for any eventuality which might put people who live within the vicinity of a reservoir at risk.”

In light of the Whaley Bridge situation, Councillor Adrian Naylor (Ind, Craven) said: “One end of the reservoir at Silsden has a dam structure similar to that in Derbyshire, but a significant difference between the two sites is that we don’t have a lot of water coming in from external sources – it is managed.

“There’s no reason to fear that the Silsden dam will be breached, but if we rely on ageing infrastructure there’s always a danger that damage will occur.”

Author Peggy Hewitt, a former Worth Valley resident, said when she heard about Toddbrook Reservoir she immediately thought about the reservoirs on the Worth, particularly Ponden and Watersheddles, which were built at about the same time and feature in her book Bronte Country.

She said: “I wrote about the ‘puddle trenches’ which give the dam wall flexibility but I thought they might prove to be weaknesses.”

A online map produced by the Government flood warning service is available to search and includes the risk of flooding from reservoirs. On it, parts of Bradford city centre could be flooded to be a depth of up to two metres along the line of Bradford Beck if reservoir dams upstream burst.