Nottinghamshire County Council preparations underway to protect residents from flooding this coming year

Preparations are underway to protect residents from flooding risks in the coming year.

A major flood exercise will take place in 2022 and flood wardens are being trained in parts of Nottinghamshire to deal with extreme weather.

During a communities committee meeting, the emergency planning department of Nottinghamshire County Council updated councillors on plans to deal with extreme weather in the county.

The major flood exercise will allow for multi-agency flood plans to be put in place and for lessons to be learnt from recent flooding events.

Documents show that county council emergency planning staff joined with the Environment Agency and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service to deliver training to new flood wardens in Burton Joyce and Stoke Bardolph.

The wardens will be given roles and responsibilities, and actions to take before, during and after a flood.

Robert Fisher, group manager for emergency planning and registration, said during the meeting: “Flooding is always going to be a focus of attention at any time of year.

“Early preparations have begun for a major flood exercise to take place in 2022 to rehearse our preparedness for future flood events.

“The report highlights the work we have been doing with the Environment Agency and the fire service to train flood wardens.

“Under current covid precautions we are not able to offer that training in person, however, we can offer virtual events.

“Tomorrow evening we will be giving training in a virtual presentation to volunteers in Shireoaks and Rhodesia in an event promoted by councillor [Sybil] Fielding.”

Further plans for winter weather are also underway, including the provision of 4x4s to help social care and other sectors to safely drive in snowy and icy conditions.

Councillors unanimously voted in favour of commending the work undertaken by the emergency planning team and agreed to receive further updates on key activities of the team.