Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumbria Local Resilience Forum (CLRF) are working with communities to provide more locally accessible support to prepare for and respond to flooding emergencies.
The council area covers 1,500 square miles and is one of the largest and most rural unitary authorities in thecountry, which presents particular challenges when a speedy response is required to localised emergencies like flooding.
Working with CLRF partners and community resilience groups, the council is aiming to ensure the right support is available in the right areas and closer to the communities most at risk from flooding.
The support includes helping community resilience groups to access funding for emergency flood protection measures – such as gel-based ‘flood sacks’ which are an effective alternative to traditional sandbags – as well as property-level preventative protection measures such as flood doors and flood gates.
The gel-based sacks are much lighter and easier to store in homes or community buildings, so can be held in locations closer to flood risk areas and are much quicker and easier to access in an emergency.
The Government withdrew guidance on the use of traditional sandbags to prevent flooding in 2020, instead recommending the installation of property-level flood protection measures.
This is because traditional sandbags are considered of limited effectiveness and can’t stop all flooding, and they are only usually effective if their use is planned in advance or the householder is practiced in building a sandbag barrier correctly.
Disposal of used traditional sandbags can also be an issue. They are often left in the open, soaked in contaminated floodwater near to locations they have been used, and gradually deteriorate. This can lead to sand being washed into drains, causing blockages.
In some areas of Westmorland and Furness, stocks of sandbags have been stored at council depots and made available for people to pick up in flooding emergencies, but as flooding often happens without much warning, it can be inadvisable (or even dangerous) to travel on flooded roads to collect or distribute sandbags during an emergency, or the nearest depot could be some distance away from the flooding incident.
Under the new community-based arrangements, the council aims to promote the use of more effective alternatives to traditional sandbags, including lightweight flood sacks filled with absorbent gel beads, water-filled barriers, and property level protection such as flood gates or flood doors, in line with updated Government advice.
Ahead of this winter, the Council has been engaging with community groups and parish councils in areas affected by flooding regarding preparedness and support with community emergency planning and has held briefing sessions alongside Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) and the Environment Agency. In addition, information has been provided about funding available to support with community resilience measures.
The council doesn’t have a statutory duty to provide sandbags, but while the new community measures are rolled-out the council is continuing to maintain a limited stock of sandbags at some depots in the former district council areas that offered sandbags, which will be available for the public to collect, while stocks last, in times of flooding emergency this winter. Please note that these are limited stocks and so may not be available in all locations and should not be relied upon in an emergency.
The council’s Community Development Teams, working with Cumbria Local Resilience Forum partners, can support communities to plan for and recover from flooding incidents, and become more resilient to severe weather and other emergencies.
A number of areas already have community-led emergency plans in place, but the council is encouraging all householders in flood-risk areas to “think now” about what they would do in an emergency situation, to consider any resilience measures they could implement and to investigate what local support structures exist in their own community that they can become a part of.
For more information about how the council works with its partners to support households and communities to become more resilient, visit the Cumbria Flood Hub website.
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