- November Floods – An estimated 25 properties in central Witney flooded (over 100 in the district) with several known low-lying areas affected. Several Flood Wardens were instrumental in gathering information and supporting their neighbours, and were affected themselves in some cases, bringing back into focus the subject of a solution urgently required for Witney.
- Sensors Project – Our recently installed and tested sensor network and new gauge boards are now fully installed and operational and will be open to the public to view on our new website. We published a joint Press Release on the launch of our project which was shared with several media contacts and was featured in the Oxford Mail: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24765294.sensors-installed-oxfordshire-river-monitor-flooding/
- New Website – We have been working on content for our new website which is launching soon: www.witneyfloodgroup.co.uk replacing our old simple one pager freebie on Google. Ian Walton, owner of Beebizzi has been a great help and has built a good website that enables us to engage with the community more effectively.
- Flood Wardens – 6 Flood Wardens have now signed up to cover key areas of Witney, we are getting organised and are engaging with the community to provide eyes and ears on the ground – we were instrumental in providing information to the authorities on the recent floods. Part of this increased focus will include Community Emergency Planning, whereby each street/area known to be at risk will have a Flood Warden and will know what to look out for, what to do and where to go during flood events.
- Engagement with the Agencies – These relationships continue to work however we frankly remain frustrated by the lack of action that directly results in reduced flood risk. Despite these good working relationship with all the parties concerned and numerous meetings, emails and calls, we continue to press on matters relating to better maintenance, communication, joined up planning and long-term solutions.
- EA Witney Flood Alleviation Project – After some delays due to funding shortfalls for the survey stage of the project (2 years on), this has been unlocked and work continues on survey work to update the EA Flood Model, which would support the long-term plan for a Flood Alleviation Scheme
- River Maintenance – We are now in the process of requesting outline cost for doing proper maintenance, given the long-term EA plan will take considerable time. The river is in poor condition and requires fallen trees to be removed, silt removal and channel clearing to get the river back to a better state. Once armed with an estimate, we will be approaching various public and private funding sources to increase the of a proper maintenance programme.
- North Witney Development – We submitted our objection to North Witney on the basis of inadequate information on storage areas upstream of Hailey Road Drain and the impact further downstream when it joins the river, causing increased risk to central Witney. We requested that the Planning team use professional drainage expertise to assess the application, given its large and complex level of content requiring an extensive detailed assessment, which Planning may not have the resource to fully assess.
