Home improvements to better protect Allesley homes from flooding
The Environment Agency has started work to install property flood resilience measures to more than 30 homes in Allesley, Coventry.
Rita Taylor's home is among those getting flood resilient doors installed
The home improvements will see flood protection measures, such as new doors and flood-adapted air bricks to minimise flood damage, installed in the Washbrook Lane and Butt Lane areas.
This work is part of the wider Allesley Flood Risk Management Scheme which is enabled by funding secured by the Environment Agency, Coventry City Council and the Regional Flood & Coastal Committee.
Charles Chandler, Area Flood and Coastal Risk Manager from the Environment Agency said:
We’re pleased to be able to work with local people to install these property flood resilience measures. Such simple home improvements can really work to reduce the risk of homes flooding and allow people to get back to normal after any flood.
Property level flood resilience measures are a core part of the Environment Agency’s long term vision for how we will better protect and prepare homes against the risk of flooding, so it’s exciting to bring these improvements to the people of Allesley.
Rita and Raymond Taylor are among the residents who have benefited from the measures. The couple have lived in the area for more than 50 years and moved into their bungalow in the area 16 years ago. Their home has flooded twice in the past 10 years.
Rita, who is celebrating her 80th birthday soon, said:
We’ve had new doors and air bricks fitted and it’s fantastic to have peace of mind in case there is another flood. The first flood we had was quite bad and it was frightening as in a bungalow you don’t have anywhere else to go.
The doors look exactly the same as the ones we had before. They are a bit stiffer to close but that’s because they provide the closeness that’s needed to stop water from getting in. It’s great that this has been offered as we couldn’t have afforded to do this ourselves.
Cllr Patricia Hetherton, cabinet member for city services at Coventry City Council said:
I’m really pleased that so many residents have taken up the offer of flood protection measures for their homes from the Environment Agency.
These measures will go alongside wider natural flood management work to help reduce the flooding. Together, I hope local people will see and feel a difference during the next weather event, whenever that comes.
The area has been affected on several occasions when the nearby River Sherbourne has flooded. Flooding has occurred in 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2016, with June to September 2007 being one of the wettest June to September periods on record in the Coventry area.
The Environment Agency is also working with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to help reduce the risk of flooding in the area through Natural Flood Management (NFM) techniques. These include building ‘leaky barriers’, planting trees, gapping up hedges and creating new pools.
This investment forms part of the Government’s £5.2 billion investment in flood and coastal erosion risk management in England over the next six years. This long-term commitment will better protect hundreds of thousands of properties, including homes, businesses, schools and hospitals. This record investment will help the nation ‘build back better’ by making properties more resilient to flooding, and ‘build back greener’ by working with nature to make us more resilient to climate change.
Members of the public can sign up for free flood warnings and ensure they know what to do in case of flooding.
You can check your flood risk, sign up for free flood warnings and keep up to date with the latest situation at GOV.UK, call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 or follow @EnvAgencyMids on Twitter for the latest flood updates.
If you are experiencing flooding, you should report this to our free 24-hour incident hotline: 0800 80 70 60 to allow us to assess the situation and respond appropriately.
Notes to editors
- Flood Resilient doors being installed provide a stronger seal than standard doors and are steel reinforced with locking mechanisms along the side as well as across the bottom to give greater compression. An additional hinge located at the bottom of the door also aids compression.
- The special airbricks being installed have a self-activating gate which will automatically shut off to prevent water entering the property when there is a flood. They are designed to replace standard airbricks and allows air to freely pass through when not in flood conditions whilst an integrated mesh stops insects and debris from entering the property.
- The Allesley scheme will see 43 homes and business better protected from the risk of flooding and along side property resilience measures, natural flood management measures installed in the catchment which to date include over 50 leaky barriers, 5 retention pools, over 1500m of planted hedgerow and 70 trees with further measures planned later in the year.
- NFM techniques are measures that work with nature to contribute towards reducing the impact of flooding. Measures reduce surface run-off of rainwater and slow the flow of water once it enters watercourses. NFM is a low carbon alternative to more traditional flood defence measures such as flood walls. NFM can increase carbon capture and storage whilst construction practices look to use locally sourced materials and local contractors to reduce carbon emissions.
- For every £1 spent improving protection from flooding and coastal erosion, we avoid around £5 of property damages. This long-term commitment will make homes, businesses and infrastructure more resilient to the increasing impacts of climate change.
- The Capital Programme will also prove central to the Environment Agency reaching its target of becoming a net zero organisation by 2030 – by embracing innovative ways of working that minimise the carbon emissions we produce, and the carbon produced through our supply chain, when we build flood defences.
- The investment across the country will help enable communities adapt to the future risk of climate crisis.
- Using partnership funding enables us to secure investment beyond levels affordable to central government alone and enables more local choice, while encouraging innovative, cost-effective options where communities may play a greater role.