Homes in Collingham are among 100 properties across the East Midlands to have been fitted with flood protection measures under a £1.6 million scheme led by the Environment Agency, the agency announced on Tuesday. The work, which included flood resilient doors and barriers, self-closing air bricks, underfloor sump pumps and self-closing non-return valves on pipework and toilets, is intended to limit the damage when water does get in, and to shorten the time it takes families to recover.
Homeowners were able to apply for grants following the flooding caused by Storm Babet in October 2023 and Storm Henk in January 2024. In Nottinghamshire the scheme covered Girton, Collingham and Pleasley; the other communities were Bradwell and Denby Bottles in Derbyshire, and Redmile, Braunstone and Sileby in Leicestershire. The Environment Agency has not provided a breakdown of how many properties received measures in each community, so it is not yet known how many of the 100 homes are in Collingham. Averaged across the whole project, the spending comes to roughly £16,000 per property, though the agency has not said how much went on the installations themselves.
The money came from several sources. Contributions included funding from local authorities, the Trent Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and the government’s Frequently Flooded Allowance.
For Collingham, the scheme follows one of the worst floods in recent memory. A Nottinghamshire County Council investigation into Storm Henk found that heavy and persistent rainfall in the upper catchments caused both the River Trent and The Fleet to overtop their banks, leaving 12 properties in Collingham flooded internally. With both rivers running high, surface water had no usable outfalls, which worsened flooding in surrounding areas, including on roads.
The flooding was concentrated in two separate areas, Low Street and Carlton Ferry Lane, both of which lie within Flood Zone 3, land classed as at high risk of flooding from rivers. The village of around 3,000 people sits in the River Trent corridor between the A46 and A1, about five miles north of Newark, with The Fleet, a Trent tributary managed by the Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board, running along its western edge.
The county council’s report also recorded the village’s own response. The Collingham Community Flood Signage Scheme was activated during Storm Henk, with volunteers closing roads to limit bow-wave flooding of homes from passing vehicles. The Environment Agency issued a flood warning for the River Trent at Collingham at 7.42am on 2 January 2024.
Property flood resilience measures are designed for places like this, where the cost or practicality of a large engineered defence does not stack up for a handful of streets. They do not stop rivers rising. The aim is to keep water out of a house for longer, or to let it drain and dry more quickly if it does get in.
Jon Atkey, the Environment Agency’s flood and coastal risk adviser for the East Midlands, said the project had gone beyond fitting equipment, with the agency helping to set up flood groups and wardens and supporting residents in drawing up their own flood plans. “We can’t always prevent flooding, but we can help people understand it, be better prepared and hopefully recover quicker,” he said.
The announcement was timed to coincide with the start of the agency’s Flood Action Week, which urges people to check their flood risk, draft a flood plan and sign up for flood warnings. The agency said that after a wet winter and a historic summer drought, including the driest July in nearly two centuries, the country is bracing for a wetter winter, and that the government has launched a new Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce.
The scheme is now complete. For residents in Collingham whose homes were not included, the free flood warning service run by the Environment Agency remains the first line of preparation, and the agency’s new online flood advice hub sets out what households can do to protect their own properties before the winter.