West Berkshire floods – looking to the future
What’s been done?
The winter 2013/14 flood event significantly impacted nineteen parishes in West Berkshire, with twenty-three individual towns and villages within these parishes experiencing internal and/or external property flooding.
In total 366 properties were flooded – 182 of those internally.
During that winter much of the country was battered with heavy rain and winds, resulting in wide-scale flooding.
Areas in the south-east of the country received almost 2.5 times the volume of rainfall than expected over an average winter period.
For the country as a whole, the winter, from the beginning of December until the end of February, was the wettest recorded in the UK since records began in 1766.
The worst affected areas were those along the line of each of the three river valleys that span West Berkshire; the River Pang, the River Lambourn and the River Kennet.
The prolonged rainfall also resulted in groundwater levels in parts of West Berkshire rising drastically.
Groundwater flooding caused more concern than flooding from the rivers across the majority of West Berkshire during this winter, with the worst affected areas being East Ilsley, West Ilsley, Great Shefford and Newbury.
Thatcham
Following the devastating floods in 2007, in and around Thatcham, where approximately 1,200 homes were flooded, West Berkshire Council was working in partnership with several agencies to ensure that Thatcham was better protected from possible future flooding.
To date, large flood alleviation schemes have been built at Cold Ash Hill, Tull Way, Floral Way and South East Thatcham, protecting 913 properties from the impact of surface water flooding.
Construction of three flood attenuation ponds at Bowling Green Road, Heath Lane and East Thatcham are currently underway.
The aim of the Memorial Fields Scheme is to protect the remaining Thatcham properties which do not currently benefit from the other schemes in the area.
Upon completion of that scheme, a minimum of 73 properties would be at a lower risk of flooding both now and in the future.
Future projects
Flood defence projects planned for Lambourn, Thatcham and Newbury have been boosted by a £6.3 million contribution from the Environment Agency.
The funding, which is a combination of Defra grant and a contribution from Thames Valley Flood and Coastal Committee, will see the completion of the north and east Thatcham flood alleviation projects, which will help to protect 110 properties.
It will also enable the design of a flood alleviation scheme for the Memorial Fields in Thatcham, which will be delivered in 2024/25 to protect a further 180 Thatcham homes.
Elsewhere, the funding will help protect specific at-risk homes in Lambourn and will fund a surface water flooding investigation in the Clay Hill area of Newbury to help inform future funding bids.
These projects are building on an extensive flood defence programme that in recent years has helped protect over 900 properties in Thatcham alone.
These five projects have a total cost of £6 million which is a significant investment by the council, with £2.8 million of that, including the grant, due to be spent this year.
The council has worked on these projects in close partnership with the Environment Agency who play a crucial role nationally in helping to make local communities more resilient to the impacts of flooding and coastal change.
