Northamptonshire residents urged to learn how protect homes from flooding
Resilience and Innovation Northants (RAIN) are running events to show what we can do to protect our homes, as they urge residents to report incidents.
A Northamptonshire resilience expert says it's important we reporting flooding to the council, as he shares ways we can make sure our property is protected.
Flood resilience events are taking place in Northamptonshire this afternoon and tomorrow, organised by Resilience and Innovation Northants (RAIN).
With climate change, the total number of properties at risk of flooding in England is predicted to be around 8 million by 2050, which will equate to one in four properties.
Alan Ryan works for West Northamptonshire Council and is the Program Lead for the RAIN Northants project. The project began in 2021 and is a six year program of works which is one of 25 projects funded by DEFRA and managed by the Environment Agency that are trialling new ways of addressing flooding.
Alan explains without reporting it's hard for councils to know where to direct resources:
"In order for us to actually be able to action it, we need it to be reported through the council's website and in incidences of storm risk and heavy rain. It's usually put up as a priority notice on the main webpage, so it's very easy to find."
According to Alan in 2024, there were 314 flood reports and up to the 1st of October this year there have been 68 in the county so far, but that number is expected to increase significantly as we're now coming into what we call flood season.
The average time spent out of a flooded home is 9 months.
He says every has a responsibility to do what they can to prepare their home in case of flooding:
"People are happy to fit a smoke alarm to keep them safe from fire and fit burglar alarms to prevent them from being broken into. They don't expect the police to do that, but they expect either the EA or local authority to protect them from flooding."
Alan says a lot of people don't know how to protect their property, from signing up to flood alerts, to fixing aluminium tape or flood doors:
"So things like flood doors, flood barriers, non return valves, all of these designed to keep the water out. And then there's also around recoverability. So if the water gets in, how to reduce the damage and potentially sweep it back out."
Their 'Floodmobile' offering advice and sharing how to set up a Household Flood Plan will be at the Snooty Fox Car Park Lowick this afternoon 2-7pm and the Hunsbury Library in East Hunsbury tomorrow 2-7pm.