Two Flood Resilience Days to provide advice and support to community flood groups and anyone interested in flooding are being run by Cambridgeshire County Council.
The in-person events will be held in April and May with speakers giving advice on how to prepare for periods of heavy rainfall.
They are being hosted by Cambridgeshire County Council, offering expert advice to households and businesses in the area which have previously experienced flooding or had near misses. A special 'Floodmobile' vehicle, which contains samples of more than 50 practical flood protection measures, will also be on site for visitors to explore.
The events will be attended by Fola Ogunyoye, director of TJAY Consultancy Ltd who has more than 30 years’ of expertise in providing flood risk, water and environmental management consultancy services, and Mary Long–Dhonau, a flood resilience campaigner who has spent 20 years supporting communities at risk of flooding.
Staff members from the council’s flood risk team will be there on the day to support with any area/site specific queries. Staff from the Environment Agency would also be present on the day to answer any area/site specific queries and talk about the work they do in the areas.
The Flood Resilience Days are part of the Community Flood Action Programme (CFAP), which was set up in April 2021 by Cambridgeshire County Council following severe flooding in December 2020 and the increasing risk of flooding posed by climate change. Since then, council officers have worked with communities to develop and train flood groups and build local resilience.
The dates and locations for the events are as follows:
• Saturday, 29 April, 10am-4pm – North Road, Alconbury Weston, PE28 4JR
• Saturday, 13 May, 10am-4pm – Houghton Mill, Mill Street, Houghton, Huntingdon, PE28 2AZ.
The events are free to attend and do not require prior booking.
Cambridgeshire County Council’s Flood Risk Team works hard with partners, stakeholders and residents throughout the year to try to mitigate flooding, raise awareness of its implications, and give practical information on how to respond to it when it occurs.
It held its first virtual flooding webinar last year which was attended by dozens of people and will host its next Community Flood Group Conference on 21 September with more information on this to come.
Further information on flooding, including how to report an incident, can be found on the council’s website at: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/business/planning-and-development/flood-and-water.
Residents can check their flood risk by using the online flood maps to check whether they’re at risk of flooding at https://www.gov.uk/check-flooding.
For any additional information please contact CFAP@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
