Cllr Pearl Lewis

I am chairing the newly reformed Local Area Forum flooding sub-group in response to the Great Ouse Catchment Flood Management Plan Consultation, produced in July 2010. The plan has failed to take into account some important considerations in respect of the impact of flooding on the infrastructure around North Buckinghamshire. We are hoping to lobby the Environment Agency (EA) and other organisations as follows…

The grading of flood risk is based on the threat to infrastructure. The flooding group will aim to provide the EA with the considerable amount of data about infrastructure damage in past floods that has not been taken into consideration in the report. For example, the closure of the A422, and the records showing the shutdown of the power substations, evacuation of student accommodation etc. The data should demonstrate that Buckingham’s grading should be moved from a Level 5 to a Level 4. Such re-grading will bring extra investment.

In addition to providing previous ignored data, we also want to show how a cost effective solution to the flooding issues can be adopted, using methods like drainage restructure, balancing lakes and the restoration of the Buckingham Canal arm. All of these are covered in the EA flood management plan as concepts for the Ouse Valley and we aim to work in partnership with them and others to drive this forward for the villages affected in Bucks and downstream in South Northants. The Buckingham Canal Society has already obtained substantial data regarding the drainage system layout on Page Hill with help from Transport for Buckinghamshire and has a possible solution to divert water and restructure the drainage system to move excess surface water to a higher level at flood time.

The flooding group will also be monitoring and lobbying local developments that are likely to impact on the general likelihood of flooding, for example, new planning developments, farmer’s maintenance of gulleys and ditches, and the maintenance of clear drains by the local authorities and water boards.