The Flood Hub

Located on the coast at the lower reaches of the Alt-Crossens and Lower Mersey river catchments, the area covering our Partnership spans 249 square miles (645 km^²) bordering Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south and south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west.

A mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations makes for a varied use of land, but overwhelmingly Merseyside is urban. Liverpool Urban Area is the fifth most populous conurbation in England with its urban core focused around Liverpool City Centre.

In our Business Plan we have identified several key flood and coastal risks in Merseyside:

• Increasing flood and coastal erosion risks as a result of climate change
• Predominant surface water flood risk
• Ageing drainage infrastructure
• Rising groundwater levels
• Management of our coastline into the future

You can find more information about these risks in our Partnership Business Plan.

Table 1 puts the number of people at risk of flooding in the context of the size of the Local Authority’s population. As a result of its urban nature, Merseyside has a high surface water flood risk relative to other areas in the North West, whilst the flood risk from rivers and the sea is comparatively low.

Table 1: Flood Risks in Merseyside

Data Sources:

• Surface Water: North West Surface Water Property Count Dataset based on National Receptor Database 2011 [July 2019]
• Rivers and Sea: North West Flood Risk Management Plan [2015]

Note:

• ‘Properties’ includes both residential and non-residential property.
• * Liverpool City Council and Sefton Council have benefited from additional local modelling of surface water flood risk, with support from United Utilities and the Environment Agency. Outputs from that work are not shown in Table 2.

Further information on flood and coastal erosion risks in your local area can be found:

• On the Environment Agency’s website here.

• On your Council’s website (below) within their:
  • Local Flood Risk Management Strategy
  • Strategic Flood Risk Assessment
  • Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment
  • Published Section 19 Flood Investigation Reports

Knowsley Council – Flood Risk Management

Liverpool City Council – Local flood risk management and drainage

Sefton Council – Drainage, Coastal Erosion and Flood Prevention

Wirral Council – Flooding

For more information on coastal flood risk management across the north west, visit our North West Coastline page here.

We work together as partners and with our communities and wider stakeholders to better manage and, where possible, reduce the impacts of flooding and coastal change in Merseyside. We do this in two main ways; proactively and reactively.

We proactively manage risk by:

• Commenting on planning applications to ensure water on new developments is managed sustainably and in a way that doesn’t increase risk to existing property and infrastructure.
• Working with planning colleagues and neighbourhoods to encourage appropriate policies for flooding and coastal change in Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans.
• Issuing consents and permits for some works on watercourses.
• Maintaining a register of assets which can have an impact on flood risk.
• Delivering our Coastal Strategies for Sefton and Wirral and supporting delivery of the Shoreline Management Plan for the North West.

We seek opportunities to reduce risk through:

• Delivering our Investment Programme 2015 – 2021. Click here to see The Flood Hub’s interactive map and search for schemes, groups and events going on in your area. For more details on the programme, click here.
• Working with wider stakeholders, such as the Liverpool City Region, to seek multiple benefits from non-flood and coastal investment.
• Taking enforcement action on watercourses, where appropriate.
• The Environment Agency delivering a five year flood and coastal risk management asset maintenance programme. Click here for details.

We have produced a Business Plan for our Partnership that sets out the key risks and challenges facing Merseyside in relation to flooding and coastal change, and consequently, the priorities the Partnership intends to focus on and address through action in the short term – the three years from 2019 to 2022.

You can download the Business Plan here.

Our priorities are:

Through the delivery of actions identified in our Business Plan we will:

• Prioritise our resources in a way that responds to local risks, challenges and needs.
• Maximise opportunities to attract investment and involvement from wider stakeholders.
• Increase awareness of flood and coastal erosion risks.
• Increase transparency of the work we do.

Our Partnership meets quarterly at two different levels of Group:

Strategic Partnership Group

Tactical Officers Group

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is led by Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham and brings together Liverpool City Region’s six local authorities – Halton, Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral – to work together to make investments in areas such as transport, employment, culture, digital and housing.

The aim of the Liverpool City Region is to increase growth to the local economy and to attract more residents and businesses to live, work, visit or invest in the region through the use of its devolved powers.

Further information can be found on the website here.

The Merseyside FCERM Partnership also works closely with the St Helens Council and Halton Council who sit within the Cheshire Mid-Mersey FCERM Partnership in matters relating to the Liverpool City Region (LCR) Combined Authority. Warrington Council and West Lancashire Council are Associate Members of the Combined Authority.

2019 Year of the Environment

In 2018, the Government launched its 25 year plan for the environment, pledging that we would be the first generation to leave our environment in a better state than we found it. As part of the plan, 2019 was declared as a national Year of Green Action across the UK – download this pack for more information.

The Liverpool City Region’s Local Nature Partnership, Nature Connected, is taking the initiative, along with the Combined Authority, the Environment Agency and Natural England, to help deliver a Liverpool City Region focused Year of Action for the Environment, working with a broad range of partners from different sectors across the City Region. Click here to visit the website.

The Liverpool City Region recently held its first ever Environmental Summit on Friday 8th November featuring a celebration of a year of community environmental projects. Click here to find out more.

News:

• A 50m long green wall is set to be installed at Liverpool’s St John’s shopping centre
• Year of the Environment – Liverpool City Region (Launches Friday 11th January)
• Government agrees funding for a new West Kirby flood defence wall

Events:

Local Authorities:

Knowsley Council – Flood Risk Management

Liverpool City Council – Extreme Weather

Sefton Council – Flooding advice

Wirral Council – Flooding

Other:

Community Action Wirral

Liverpool City Region Year of Environment 2019

Merseyside Prepared

Misconceptions of flooding in the Wirral

URBAN GreenUP – Liverpool

• The URBAN GreenUP walk across Liverpool