Draft Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) 2021-2026

Activity closed

Background

Under the Flood and Water Management Act (2010), West Berkshire Council is designated as a Lead Local Flood Authority, and has statutory powers and responsibilities for co-ordinating flood risk management in partnership with other organisations. We're responsible for managing surface and ground water, and ordinary watercourses, whereas main rivers such as the River Kennet, the River Lambourn and the River Pang are managed by the Environment Agency .

As Lead Local Flood Authority, we're required to develop a Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS), which has to set out how we will work with our professional partners and local communities to better understand local flooding, communicate risks and manage unacceptable risks both now and in the future. It also helps individuals, communities and businesses understand local flood risk, what action they can expect to see with regards to local flood risk management, and what action they can take to reduce their risk from future flood events.

How we developed our draft strategy

Our current strategy [13MB] needs updating, so we've worked with parish and town councils, our professional partners in flood risk management, and community flood forums to prepare a new draft strategy for 2021-2026 [6MB] . 

In developing the draft strategy, we've considered national and local policies and strategies, including the National Planning Policy Framework, our Environment Strategy [3MB] , and our Council Strategy 2019-2023.

We've also viewed it in the context of our Climate Emergency&nbsp made in 2019, and how we plan to respond to the effects of climate change.

Through the process of producing the draft strategy, we've established the following objectives:

1. Maintain and update understanding of flood risk within West Berkshire and increase public awareness
2. Develop plans to reduce existing flood risk taking account of people, communities and the environment
3. Identify measures that aim to reduce existing flood risk
4. Ensure that planning decisions take full account of flood risk

To achieve these objectives we've also identified 16 associated measures, which are listed in Table A2 in Appendix 1: West Berkshire Council - Strategic Flood Action Plan.

Why we want your views

We'd like your views on our draft strategy, in particular the four objectives and sixteen associated measures. We want to know if you think that we're planning on taking the right action, and if there is anything we've missed.

How to take part

If you'd like to comment on our draft strategy, please complete our survey by midnight on Sunday, 3 October 2021. It should take about 10 minutes.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Stuart Clark, Principle Engineer.

For general queries about flooding, please use our report a problem page.

What happens next

Your feedback will used to finalise the strategy, which will be considered by elected members at the Executive Meeting being held on 16 December 2021.

Once approved, the strategy will be published on our Strategies, Policies and Plans webpage.