- Our Group – We now have over 100 members in our group and now represent someone from every area of Witney at risk. Of course, everyone in Witney is at risk in a flooding event, so we would like to increase membership for the ‘Tier 2’ residents and businesses i.e. those not at direct risk of flooding themselves but affected nonetheless – How they will get to work? How will they run their business? How can they get in and out of town due to flooding? For them it will be an irritation however their voice and support also matter to us. Our founders would like to expand the core group, so we have a representative from each street/residential and business area at flood risk. More on that below.
- On Board Expertise – We have been joined by a retired Thames Valley River Engineer as a seasoned expert providing us with knowledge and guidance on how river management works. We are learning a lot about the responsibilities of river management, maps and heights, sluices, riparian ownership for maintenance etc. so we are moving from becoming amateurs towards being those who can understand and challenge those whom we want to hold to account. That means we have 2 people on our initial team who really understand river management in general but also the local area and how it was managed in the past and other events that got us to where we are such as developments and their likely impact on the town and the river and the risk to our homes as a result.
- Links with other Groups in the Area – We are in the steady process of connecting with a few more WODC/WTC area Councillors, Senior Managers at the Environment Agency (EA), Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), North Witney Action Group (NWAG), and Windrush Catchment Partnership. We recently attended the quarterly Windrush Catchment Partnership Meeting as guests, so we are getting to know all the interested parties but also learning that we have to balance wildlife and environmental concerns with that of the people who are affected. The river and valley are of course a complex habitat with many interdependencies. We received a warm and friendly welcome and will continue to learn and promote our cause through such organisations. For those of you who may have been members of or recall the group established after the 2007 floods called WAFG (Witney Anti Flood Group), we have confirmation that this group is no longer in existence and all members have been invited to join our group.
- EA Warning Threshold has been Adjusted – Upon contacting them, we have been assured by the EA (will reconfirm with their senior management) that they have adjusted the Flood Warning threshold levels for Witney given the lateness of the warning we all received (you have to register for this service) on Christmas Eve. This is a complex algorithm that cannot be tested so we will not know for sure if it works unless there is another event in the future. The EA warning system is only provisioned/accountable to providing a 2-hour target warning which in our view remains too short however the threshold is set at national level.
- WODC Emergency Plans in Future – We are awaiting the lessons learned outcomes from the Christmas Eve event where calls were routed to a Call Centre in Liverpool and no Council Leadership were available. We have been told that there will be a local representative on call in future. We have established that given it was Christmas Eve, many left their work early as many do, however matters of public health and safety and wellbeing cannot be excused whatever the time of year it is, we will continue to pursue clarity on this aspect.
- Addressing the WODC Environmental Scrutiny Committee – We were due to address the committee this month in our formal capacity as WFMG however the Flooding agenda was dropped (possibly due to upcoming elections in May, or because they do not have an update ready on future plans) and we have been moved to June’s meeting where at least two of us will address on behalf of residents, we also expect an update from WODC on the situation.
- Contacting Representatives of Key Stakeholders – We have written to a few people including the WODC Cabinet Member for the Environment, EA Representatives at their Operations department in Oxford, our local River Engineer and others in relation to seeking understanding and clarity, and a formal working relationship in future. We have communicated with the local River Engineer employed by Publica, who are in turn owned by a group of 4 councils which include WODC (whom the Council rely on for all technical matters relating to the river). We have written to the Regional Director of the EA asking them to meet with us. We have been unofficially told that the bridge is the problem, and the owners (Oxfordshire County Council) would be very worried about its stability and modifications would be extremely costly and of course have been discounted previously.
- Thames Valley Flood Scheme Launched – This recently launched scheme is investigating a number of options that include:
- Large scale flood water storage in a range of locations,
- Natural flood risk management measures, such as creating wetlands, improving soil, crop management and planting trees to help retain or slow water
- Engineered flood risk management solutions including flood alleviation channels.
- We have been advised that consultations will be made with those who registered in May (we did of course), and business case submissions made to the Treasury in 2024. This of course means this is a long-term solution given predicted climate and rainfall changes, however it does sound promising, acknowledging our area is a very, very small part of the whole of the Thames Valley and interest will be in protecting major cities and London.