Council discusses further action on flooding after heavy rain his Cambridgeshire over winter

A spell of unusually heavy and sustained rain over Christmas and the first weeks of January, thought to be the third wettest since records began, resulted in considerable localised flooding across Cambridgeshire - with a range of agencies including Cambridgeshire County Council working 24/7 to limit the disruption and devastating impact on local residents.

This week the park manager at Nene Park Trust, which runs Ferry Meadows in Peterborough, said this winter had been the worst year for flooding he could remember.

MORE: Winter has been worst ever for flooding at Peterborough's Ferry Meadows

Yesterday (Feb 3) a multi-agency meeting brought together all those organisations with a role in flooding, drainage and flood management to look at the causes of the most recent flooding with an aim to share actions all agencies need to take immediately and in the longer term to reduce the risks in the future.

Cllr Steve Count, Leader at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “I commended the local responses at the time, and once again repeat my thanks to all those who stepped in to help with any community responses to local flooding.

“I also called for residents to report the flooding issues they faced recognising the importance of doing anything we can to mitigate further flooding in our communities. We have listened to those responses, we received more than 700, and yesterday we took the key issues from our residents to the meeting with the agencies and other organisations concerned with flooding, drainage and flood management. We will do what is in our power to reduce the future impacts of flooding, particularly focusing on the hotspots that have been identified from residents’ feedback.”

Cllr Joshua Schumann, Chairman of the Environment and Sustainability committee, said: “We know that the rainfall over Christmas was the most significant since 1998. We recognised that managing flood risk and impact was variable from place to place and the county faces long term changes in rainfall patterns, but we need to meet this challenge together as a partnership.

“We understand the importance of maintenance and repair and the need to communicate with land owners about their responsibilities. On this we have already communicated with those who have reported flooding to us, asking them to identify locations of poorly maintained watercourses.

“Additionally, the County Council has agreed an immediate action regarding roadside drains - one part of the drainage solutions which have some impact on reducing surface water flooding. We will be working with our contractor to significantly increase gully clearing, with work already underway and more prioritised. Although I recognise that often the gullies only play a small part in flood management, we need to take action where we can.”