Flooding is becoming a more common occurrence in our communities, and households should be prepared so that they can protect themselves in the event of a flooding emergency.

West Northamptonshire Council have a wealth of information available to householders in their Flood Toolkit and through the RAIN project will actively engage with residents at risk to help them prepare and protect themselves and their property.

The Parish Council have submitted a planning application for flood mitigation works in Penvale Park. The planning application is the result of work undertaken with a civil engineer, a tree consultant, and a planning consultant to develop a natural flood mitigation plan to reduce the risk of flooding to properties around the park.

The plan includes reprofiling of the land at the Hilldrop Road end of the park, creation of an earth bund, and repositioning of the footpath.

The planning application can be viewed on the West Northamptonshire Planning Portal - search for application number WNN/2023/0510

East Hunsbury Parish Council took part in the Pathfinder III project, which aims to facilitate community-led improvements in resilience and preparedness amongst communities at risk of surface water flooding in Northamptonshire, complementing other flood risk management activities. This was a two year project (2019 – 2021) for 30 communities funded by the Anglian Northern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, focussing on urban settlements, as well as business town centres.

The final report from the Pathfinder III project was released in April 2023. This document will be useful for households to formulate their own flood response measures, and for the parish council to agree flood mitigation responses and applying for funding. The recommendations of the document will be incorporated into the parks management plans where appropriate.

The parish council have recruited three flood wardens for East Hunsbury, who have received training and are equipped to respond in the first instances of flooding events in the parish.

If you are interested in volunteering as a flood warden please get in touch.

Flood Wardens are volunteers who help their communities to become more resilient and to be prepared for flooding. They do this by:

• monitoring the condition of drains, culverts and other watercourses and reporting defects or blockages
• raising local awareness of flood risk
• passing on flood alerts and warnings
• providing relevant agencies with local information during a flood event.

Full training, equipment, and support is provided.

If you are interested in getting involved or would like to find out more, please get in touch.

Parts of East Hunsbury are affected by the flood warning area in place for Wootton Brook.

When incidents of flooding occur, Northamptonshire County Council are required to commission a report to identify the contributing factors to the incident, and any mitigation measures that can be made.