Leicestershire Formal Flood Investigations Statement - Spring 2025

The County Council have produced this statement to clarify the current situation regarding formal (section 19) flood investigations.

‘Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 requires the County Council as LLFA to complete formal flood investigations. The Leicestershire Formal Flood Investigations Policy details the criteria which may lead to a formal flood investigation. The LLFA must publish the results of its investigation and notify any relevant RMAs. Between 2014 and 2022, the LLFA published 35 formal flood investigations, all of which are available to view on the County Council’s website’.

Since June 2023, Leicestershire has been impacted by multiple and significant flood events which have met our criteria for a formal flood investigation. Our sympathies continue to be with those affected by this flooding.

• June 2023 - Oadby and Wigston

• September 2023 – Packington

• January 2024 – Storm Henk (County wide)

• September 2024 – Market Harborough town centre

• September 2024 – Blaby district

• January 2025 – County wide

These investigations are all in the process of being written and will be published in due course. Please be assured that actions resulting from investigations are already progressing. Due to the amount of flooding, the Council has chosen to prioritise this coordination of actions with partners over report writing, alongside providing information to communities on being flood ready. We think it is better communities receive actions to reduce flood risk or increase resilience first, over a report. Our policy does however recognise the value of reports for delivering a common message:

A formal flood investigation is most useful where there is a particular need to communicate publicly and consistently with communities affected.

In the time between flooding occurring and formal flood investigation publication, the Council and partners seek to keep affected communities up to date with investigations and actions, so that by the time of publication, most of the contents of the report is already known. This is in accordance with the Strategy principle to work with communities.

We do however recognise there have been challenges with keeping some communities updated over the last two years due to the sheer volume of flooding. Where there is a need for interim information, we will seek to meet this as best as possible. From May 2025, the progress/status of our Section 19 investigations will also be available on our web site, which will be updated on a quarterly basis. The Flooding team can also be contacted at flooding@leics.go.uk should residents have any questions or require updates.

Lastly, we should be clear that formal flood investigations identify actions but will not necessarily detail solutions to mitigate all flood risk.

Further details are in the Leicestershire Formal Flood Investigations Policy, and we welcome any feedback that you may have.

Will Barber Bsc Msc MCIWEM

Senior Engineer - Flood Risk Management

Infrastructure Planning

Environment & Transport Department

Leicestershire County Council

e. will.barber@leics.gov.uk

t. 0116 305 1348