A flooding roadshow is inviting South Ribble residents to help shape the borough’s future flooding response.
The Environment Agency, South Ribble Borough Council and partners are inviting residents to have their say on flooding and find out more about the support available. The drop-in sessions provide an opportunity for local people to inform flood risk management in their community by providing information on their experiences. This will help identify the extent and cause of local flooding and inform recovery work. It’s also an opportunity to speak to different agencies, ask questions, raise concerns and find out about funding and support.
Leader of South Ribble Borough Council, Councillor Margaret Smith said: “Around 100 homes in South Ribble suffered from the devastating effects of flooding over the Christmas weekend, with 30 businesses also damaged. Our councillors and council officers were out in force, assisting the major responders and helping those affected, while in the office we coordinated relief payments and other support as quickly as we could. I encourage people to come along to the session and speak about their experience of the flooding, and help shape how we, as a council, can work with you to mitigate the risks and respond to any flooding in the future.”
Dan Bond, Environment Agency Manager, said: “You can’t underestimate the devastating impacts of flooding to people’s lives and the key to recovering quickly, and increasing our flood resilience in the long term, is to listen to the people who experienced it first hand and learn from their experiences.
“We’ve been visiting affected communities since the flooding began in early December, and these drop-in sessions are the start of a more coordinated approach to involving local people in the development of local flood risk management plans. We would encourage anyone affected by flooding to come along and talk to us. We will have technical experts from the Environment Agency and County Council available to chat to, with support from a number of agencies that can provide advice and support.”
Agencies attending the roadshow will include: the Environment Agency, South Ribble Borough Council and Lancashire County Council.
The roadshow will be held at the Civic Centre, Leyland on Tuesday 2nd February from 3pm until 8pm.
For more information on the flood risks, members of the public can call the Floodline number on 0345 988 1188.