Town and Parish Flood Plans

Mid Beds District Council has been working in partnership with the Environment Agency to pilot the production of local Town or Parish flood plans in some of the places that were affected by the flooding in January 2003. Sandy and Shefford Town Councils, and Northill Parish councils engaged with Mid Beds to see how they could use local knowledge to help improve the response to future flooding.

By making use of local knowledge, work has been completed to identify areas that are known to flood, and trigger levels that can be spotted by residents. Simple pointers such as water standing on the green before a flood can be part of an early warning system, when combined with the Environment Agency warnings. The Environment Agency is able to provide a direct warning to a self help groups, such as a Town or Parish Council.

This is of great benefit in areas such as Mid Beds where the take up for the Flood Warnings Direct service can be as low as 13%. When the areas have been identified, Councillors have then visited the areas to see if there are any vulnerable people living there, who may not be able to help themselves should a flood alert be issued.

This information is then shared with partner agencies such as the Fire and Rescue service, so they know which areas to concentrate on first. As well as providing filled sandbags to the Fire and Rescue service, Mid Beds District Council has supplied thousands of empty sandbags to many Town and Parishes around the district. The local plans consider how they would be best used? How can residents get them easily? Where can they get a supply of sand from?

The plans provide the answers to these questions, so that solutions don’t need to be found when it is too late. This work forms part of the ‘Flood Aware, Flood Prepare’ campaign, but with an emphasis on helping the community to help themselves.