Residents of Chew Magna have been nominated for a top award for their work in developing a new Community Flood Plan.
The Environment Agency’s Project Excellence Awards recognise projects that have contributed to managing flood risk and building local resilience to flooding.
Chew Magna’s improved Community Flood Plan was developed in direct response to flooding in the area in 2012. The villages of Chew Magna and Chew Stoke, in particular, were badly affected with around fifty homes inundated on two separate occasions.
With support from Bath & North East Somerset Council and the Environment Agency, a Property Level Resilience scheme was rolled out, enabling home owners to make their homes more resilient to future flooding. The local Flood Warden Group, residents, and Chew Magna Parish Council then took the initiative in developing a truly robust plan to enable the village to deal with the inherent flood risk.
Cllr Liz Richardson (Conservative, Chew Valley North), Cabinet Member for Homes and Planning, said: “I am delighted that people in Chew Magna have been nominated for this award. It is important that individuals and communities are prepared to manage their flood risk in order to be more resilient to the impacts of flooding. What the community has achieved in Chew Magna is a fantastic demonstration of what can be accomplished when local people work together in order to deal with a real and present risk that affects the whole community. From the Council’s point of view it’s great to know that there is such a robust plan in place. We think other communities could learn a great deal from Chew Magna.”
As part of the Plan a number of test runs and community events are run throughout the year. These events include Flood Resilience Days, where homeowners put their individual plans in place, including installing Property Level Resilience measures and testing pumps.
The Community Flood Plan was put into action at the end of November last year, when the Winford Brook burst its banks and flooded parts of the village. As a direct result of the rapid initiation of the Flood Plan the village was able to quickly return to normal business soon as flood levels dropped.
Winners of the Project Excellence Awards will be announced at an award ceremony at Telford International Centre on March 29.