‘It was coming through the letterbox’: Eight minutes of hell at Kirkham tattoo parlour facing £40k bill after flash flooding

While the majority of Lancashire has been baking in extreme heat this week, business in Kirkham have been left counting the devastating cost after being battered by storms on Monday (June 13).

Some have been forced to close following devastating flash flooding, including Odditorium Tattoo Studio on Poulton Street. The premises is owned by husband and wife duo Neil and Lucy Davies.

They say they could be facing bills of over £40,000 to cover the damage caused by the freak weather, which followed a baking-hot dry weekend where temperatures hit peaks of 28C.

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It is not the first time Odditorium has been hit by flooding. Three years ago, in 2020, the business was left to pick up the pieces shortly after opening. Before then, according to Neil, there hadn’t been a flood in over 30 years, with 1973 being the last time water levels rose in the area.

When the couple moved into the shop years ago, they were told that “alleviation works” had been in place to prevent the flooding, until it happened in 2020. However, they were assured this was a “complete freak” occurrence, so the couple rebuilt their businesses from the ground up, taking them 12 weeks.

Noticing the thunderstorms on Monday evening, Neil drove from his home to the Kirkham studio to double check if any flooding had occurred..

The owner arrived to the shop at around 8pm that evening and was assured everything was in working order. Neil told LancsLive: “We were told that the issue that caused the flood will never ever happen again, so we obviously rebuilt our business. I came down at about eight o’clock, just to double check and there was nothing.

“There was nothing, it was fine. I rang my wife and explained, all good. I rang her at 8.13pm, making sure everything was sound. I actually took a video through the front door of the studio, of the main road grid. By 8.21pm, it was coming through the letterbox of the studio.”

Three years ago, Neil and Lucy had to fork out around £20,000 for the internal damage that had occurred in the shop, plus the rebuild costs that the landlord paid, meaning the total amount could have come to around £40,000 worth of damage from the flooding.

“It took eight minutes from the water to be running down that grid to be going through my letterbox at the tattoo studio and coming out of the toilet coming through the back door,” Neil added. “It’s another 20,000 pound rebuild insurances.

“My insurance will now probably never insure me for water damage. I’ve already been told this year we’re looking at about a £2,000 pound increase on my insurance premium. We’re a small family business, myself and my wife. We’re already absorbing energy costs the cost of products, you know the cost of living, now we’re supposed to foot the bill and incur further harsh implications of something that’s not my fault.”

Neil says that workers came to sort out the flooding once it had occurred and was told by the United Utilities manager that the main sewerage drain, which is three metres underground, “never broke capacity.” He said: “It looks like the highways drains were blocked, the United Utilities guys were pretty efficient, giving credit where credit’s due. They were out by lunchtime yesterday inspecting manholes and drainage.”

Footage shows workers using rods to poke the drains to unblock what was inside, which then meant that the water could eventually go down and the flooding was drained.

He added: “From the information that we were given this morning, that means there was space for that water to go, because if they poked the drains and it was just water, the water level wouldn’t drop, it would have nowhere to go. There obviously was somewhere for it to go if those drains weren’t blocked.”

In the immediate area, there’s a number of drains on the main road and in the car park at Morrisons and none of the drains were moving until they were poked. This meant that a number of cars had been affected by the water damage to the back of the tattoo studio, including Neil’s, which luckily, still works.

Neil continued: “We’ve got no way of paying our bills. We’ve got no way we’ve got nothing now yes, we have insurance but a loss of earnings will not pay out until the business reopens in however many months time will I be able to get insurance to cover the costs of my contents for flooding? Probably not.”

Another problem comes due to the nature of the tattoo business, with Neil saying they pride themselves on being a “phenomenally sterile tattoo studio”, piercing studio and place for laser aesthetics. He added: “We’re not the type of business that can just move somewhere temporary, because you have to have licences and inspections.

“It’s not something that you just stop somewhere else, you know, in two days time. You can never use the equipment again, it’s contaminated. I watched the water bucket fill up through the toilet.”

LancsLive have contacted Lancashire County Council for comment.

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