Council pledges to push forward progress on flooding protection

29 November 2024

West Northamptonshire councillors have reaffirmed their commitment to tackle the risks and impacts of flooding and secure more funding and resources to better protect residents and businesses across the area against extreme weather.

At their Full Council meeting last night (Thursday, 28 November), members unanimously supported plans to work closely with the government’s Floods Resilience Taskforce, Environment Agency, and other agencies to review flood defences and improve the resilience of its communities.

Over the past week residents and businesses experienced severe flooding from Storm Bert, which saw river flows higher than in the 1998 floods, prompting the area to receive the only severe flood warning in the country. The flood defences in the centre of Northampton, built following the devastating 1998 flooding, significantly reduced the risk to the 2200 residential and 300 commercial properties flooded in 1998.
At last night’s meeting Councillors from across political groups recognised and spoke out about the struggles of many local communities hit by flooding – many for the second time in just two months – and supported a motion pledging to step up West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) close working with partners on long-term solutions as the area continues to see more frequent and severe weather events.

Key to this will be the Council progressing the work to update the Local Flood Risk Strategy and seeking a review of existing flood defences by the Environment Agency areas continue to see the greatest impact from storms and heavy rainfall. WNC will also further develop and enhance inform communications to the public, particularly around who to contact in an emergency and the support available. It will also progress plans to recruit more specialist officers to its specialist in-house flood team which investigates all flooding incidents and lessons learned to act upon.

All agencies continue to face significant challenges around repeated flooding at Billing Aquadrome, which is located on a flood plain that protects houses and businesses in the area. The site was evacuated last weekend for the fourth time this year with WNC currently providing temporary accommodation to some residents whilst it awaits further information from the park’s owners on timescales and arrangements for their return to the site.

This afternoon (Friday, 29 November) the Council briefed local MPs Mike Reader and Sarah Boole on the ongoing Billing situation including the plans that the owners have put forward to resolve the issues. A multi-agency task group established to look at more long-term solutions for the site has met regularly and identified potential measures. The Council and the owners have set these plans out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
 

“The welfare of residents and livelihoods of businesses is our top priority. All partners need to prioritise working together to find sustainable, long-term solutions to the increased risk of flooding and WNC has a key role to play in ensuring this happens.

“It’s encouraging to see all councillors this week support plans to reaffirm our Council’s current working with the Environment Agency, the government’s Floods Resilience Taskforce, and other agencies towards securing funding and resources for improving flood defences and householder and business resilience.

“Among the next steps will be the production of section 19 reports, which are produced in collaboration with a number of agencies following major flood events and will make recommendations for future plans and mitigations, and ensuring our area’s flood risk strategy is up to date and fit for purpose. Residents will have the opportunity to have their say on the strategy work. We’ll continue to keep them updated as this important work progresses.”Councillor Rebecca Breese, WNC’s Cabinet Member for the Environment

For further information on flooding advice and flood risk management, visit the flooding and flood risk management page.