Great Yarmouth Borough SWMP

Norfolk County Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Anglian Water have jointly funded this Surface Water Management Plan (SWMP).

The SWMP covered the whole borough council area and looked in detail at areas that have suffered from surface water flooding.

The most recent, significant surface water flooding event occurred on 25 September 2006 when a torrential thunderstorm flooded over 50 properties including six schools in Great Yarmouth, flooded properties and businesses in Hemsby and Hopton on Sea and caused serious disruption to a much wider area.

The impact of the flood and the disruption to traffic were exacerbated by the failure of a pumping station and the early closure of many schools.

Background

Funding for this SWMP has come from Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Norfolk County Council and Anglian Water. Norfolk County Council has provided officer time for the project management of the SWMP.

One of the key outputs from the Great Yarmouth Borough SWMP is detailed surface water flood risk maps. These maps can be used to help identify potential Critical Drainage Areas (CDAs). The identified CDAs are the main focus for our stakeholder engagement and the detail of the SWMP Action Plan.

An important part of the SWMP is the Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Plan. This seeks to inform and liaise with all relevant stakeholders who could be affected by or have an input towards mitigating surface water flooding.

Progress

Stage one of the project involved putting together a steering group to manage the project, gathering all available and relevant data and starting engagement with local resilience groups and councillors.

The steering group consists of officers from Anglian Water, the Broads Authority, the Environment Agency, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Norfolk County Council and local Internal Drainage Boards.

Historic flood events and predicted flood risk from new surface water flood maps were analysed to identify the priority settlements for this project.

Stage 1 of the project was delivered by the steering group and was completed in May 2012.

Stage 2 of the Surface Water Management Plan involved assessments of all the identified settlements and the construction of flood prediction models for the highest priority areas. This led to the production of flood risk maps and a range of mitigation measures intended to lessen the flood risk or impact of flooding.

We held a series of workshops to feed back the results of these assessments . Detailed flood risk modelling and mapping of the areas found to be most at risk from surface water flooding were discussed with residents and stakeholders.

Mitigation measures intended to lessen the flood risk or impact of flooding were proposed for all of the identified settlements. However, further funding will need to be identified to implement any future priority projects.

On 6 January 2014, the Great Yarmouth Surface Water Management Plan was formally adopted by the Norfolk County Council.

The completed report can now be found following links below.

Use of surface water flood mapping within the report and appendices

Note that the Great Yarmouth Surface Water Management Plan maps only show the predicted likelihood of surface water flooding (this includes flooding from sewers, drains, small watercourses and ditches that occurs in extreme rainfall events) for defined areas, and due to the coarse nature of the source data used, are not detailed enough to account for precise addresses.

Individual properties therefore may not always face the same chance of flooding as the areas that surround them. There may also be particular occasions when flooding occurs and the observed pattern of flooding does not in reality match the predicted patterns shown on these maps.

To the extent permitted by law Norfolk County Council ("We" or "we") will not be liable if the maps by their nature are not as accurate or complete as might be desired and we make no representation or warranty, express or implied, that the maps will be accurate, complete or up to date.

We have taken reasonable measures to ensure that the maps reflect all the data we possess and in good faith have applied our knowledge to create reasonable conclusions.

It is essential that anyone using these maps fully understands the complexity of the data utilised in production of the maps, is aware of the limitations and does not use the maps in isolation. Users of these maps should refer to Appendix C (PDF, 6 MB) of the Great Yarmouth Surface Water Management Plan report for a complete description of the limitations and accuracy of the flood or hazard extents shown.

These maps provide strategic overview of surface water flood risk and may be subject to further analysis in the future. By downloading the documents below you accept the use of the surface water mapping in their production.

All intellectual property rights in the data and information on this website are owned by the Norfolk County Council or are licensed from other third party data providers.