Two areas of Northamptonshire to benefit from around £6m in funding to boost flood resilience

The funding could help implement measures such as flood stores, flood warden training and more
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Two areas in Northamptonshire will benefit from improved flood resilience thanks to around £6 million in funding, which will be spent over the next six years.

Northamptonshire County Council is one of 25 local authorities nationally that has been successful in gaining funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

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The Government has allocated £150 million to the improvement of flood defence and Northamptonshire has secured around £6 million of that.

Collingtree Golf Course flooded in 2016. (File picture).Collingtree Golf Course flooded in 2016. (File picture).
Collingtree Golf Course flooded in 2016. (File picture).

Both Harpers Brook in Corby and Wootton Brook in Northampton will benefit from the funding in the form of a detailed project plan and new initiatives.

A spokesman for the county council said: “Working with partners, the county council put in an expression of interest (EOI) bid for the money into Defra in January this year with the two new unitary authorities taking the project forward.

“The project team will work closely with Defra and the Environment Agency during this funded development stage to develop the EOI into a detailed project plan.

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“Once finalised and approved, it is anticipated the final bid will be in the region of £6 million, with the project delivered over the next six years with the communities and project partners.

“The communities were selected due to the number of flood incidents, the combined sources of flood risk and those where it has been more difficult to secure funding for flood alleviation measures due to the viability of previous schemes.”

The Harpers Brook area includes Brigstock, Lowick, Sudborough, Stanion and South Corby and Wootton Brook includes Collingtree, Wootton, West and East Hunsbury, Hunsbury Meadows, Hackleton and Hardingstone.

In these areas the project will look at how flood resilience measures work at three levels including catchment, community and property.

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The funding will support measures such as natural flood management to ‘slow the flow’, an ordinary watercourse and groundwater warning system to help communities better prepare when flooding is expected, property flood resilience measures for properties at highest risk, community engagement, flood warden training, flood stores and flood plan testing.

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