Framlingham Flood Resilience & Recovery
Everyone was shocked about the extent of the flood caused by Storm Babet on the 20th of October 2023. The Town has identified 117 residents and businesses who were directly affected by the floods that occurred. The event was truly shocking and distressing for many people in the Town.
There is no doubt there was an exceptional amount of rainfall during that period causing widespread damage, fortunately no casualties were reported. Framlingham Town Council is working with East Suffolk Council, Suffolk County Council and the Environment agency to identify the root cause of the flooding and identify what can be done to prevent it happening again. This is likely to take a while but one of the roles of the Town Council is to coordinate and work in partnership with the other authorities and institutions keeping the pressure on them to help us.
Framlingham Flood Resilience & Recovery Working Group
To enable this to happen we have convened the Framlingham Flood Resilience working group, this includes local stakeholders - ESC district Cllrs, SCC Cllr, Hour Community, four Town Cllrs, two residents, one who has Environment Agency experience and the other who had been flooded themselves. The intention is to establish what has happened and how we can make the Town more resilient by coordinating agencies and holding them to account if necessary. We want to push the agenda along for the Fram Community.
Flood management involves many organisations and can be very complex to understand – who does what? Who is responsible for what? Who has the funding? How do we access funding and how?
The Town Council has commissioned Leigh Parratt from Amazi who is a civil engineer specialising in flooding. Her key expertise is in understanding land drainage and flood modelling. She has previously worked with other Town Councils, Flood Action Groups, developers, County Councils and academia. As our flooding consultant and expert she will be able to give us an independent report on what happened and identify the root cause of the flooding and advise us on how to prevent flooding in the future. We believe Suffolk CC's official "S.19" report is likely to take up to 18 months. This is a quicker way to find out what happened. Her report will enable us to provide evidence-based information for bids for funding to prevent future flooding.
Public Flood Meeting
On 21 January 2024 we convened a public meeting to listen to the views of experts and answer questions from the public. We had over 120 residents and businesses attending. This is viewed as the first of a number of events to keep the Fram communities informed and involved in the solution. Also attending were representatives from the Environment Agency, Suffolk County Council (SCC) including their flooding team, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, and East Suffolk Council.
The main speaker was our consultant Leigh Parratt from Amazi, who outlined how she will work to produce an independent report on what happened, identifying the root cause of the flooding and advising us on how to prevent and be more resilient in the future.
We will know much more when Amazi's report has been published. We are aiming for this to be presented at the Town's Annual Parish Meeting in April.
Summary of the Town Council's response to the flooding:
- We coordinated efforts with other organisations
- Established Flood Recovery & Resilience Group which has met regularly since the flooding
- Commissioned Leigh Parratt of Amazi to produce a flood report for the town
- Worked with Suffolk Forum and revised its Emergency Plan
- Emphasised collaboration and learning from best practices
- Contributed £3000 to the Hour Community Flooding Appeal fund.
Overall themes and ways forward:
- Collaboration among various authorities and organisations.
- Many residents are not aware of their riparian rights and responsibilities.
- Challenges in implementing flood prevention measures.
- The importance of strategic interventions and long-term planning.
- Concerns about the impact of recent developments on flooding.
- Need for improved communication and information dissemination.
Section 19 Flood Investigation Report by Suffolk County Council
Major flood investigation report has now been published by Suffolk County Council
As lead local flood authority, Suffolk County Council has a duty to investigate significant flooding under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act.
A detailed investigation into the flooding which occurred in Framlingham during October 2023 has taken place to understand what caused these events and recommend what could be done to alleviate flooding here in future. These investigations help to establish the source of flooding, factors which may have caused or exacerbated the flooding, the impacts on people, services and infrastructure and any actions which could be taken to increase resilience to future storm events.
The report includes a list of short, medium and longer-term recommendations, which serve as potential actions to improve resilience and reduce the risk of flooding in these communities. The actions have been tailored to a range of parties, including individual homeowners, community groups, landowners and Risk Management Authorities, all of which can contribute to help mitigate local flood risk.
For short term measures, key highlights include the implementation of community flood plans, maximising Property Flood Resilience (PFR) grants, removal of blockages within watercourses and drainage infrastructure, as well as improvements to flood warning systems and the sensitive management of land – some of these measures have already been taken.
For medium to longer term recommendations, there is emphasis on potential improvements to drainage infrastructure and the creation of new natural flood management features, to reduce flood risk within the catchment. These longer-term recommendations would require external funding and collaboration with landowners and communities to implement.
Since the storm, targeted recovery work has been carried out across the county to ensure damaged highway infrastructure is repaired, those whose properties were flooded get help and that investigations can start which will identify how to reduce flood risk. In any usual year, Suffolk County Council carries out around three or four of these flood investigations, however following Babet, approximately 50 have been commissioned.
Anyone who suffered internal flooding as a result of Storm Babet can apply for the £5k grant to make their homes more resilient to future floods. Applications can be made until April 2025 and anyone interest should make contact with Suffolk County Council at floodgrants@suffolk.gov.uk.
Contact
If you would like further information about Framlingham's Resilience Group please contact:
Lydia Kirk, Deputy Town Clerk at: dtc@framlingham.com
Notices & Reports
SCC Framlingham Flood Investigation - Section 19 Report 24-07-2024 (PDF, 2.3 Mb)
Amazi Report on Storm Babet & Flooding in Framlingham (PDF, 35.7 Mb)
Public Flooding Meeting, Feedback Summary, 21-01-2024 (PDF, 129 Kb)
Storm Babet briefing, Framlingham, from the Environment Agency & Suffolk County Council (PDF, 422 Kb)
ESC-Storm Babet - Impact of the Flooding Report (PDF, 183 Kb)
SCC-Storm Babet - Letter to Business Properties (PDF, 140 Kb)
DR Dan Poulter MP, Flood Support (PDF, 175 Kb)