Flood Guards involvement in the pilots for DEFRA's latest flood initiative.

06/07/2009

Floodguards are immensely proud of their work in the initial pilot schemes that have helped to frame DEFRA’s latest flood mitigation initiative.

In June 2009 DEFRA announced a budget of around £3 million for “on property” flood protection for the current financial year with a further £2 million (or possibly more) for the next financial year due to the number of bids already received. Some 593 properties in around 25 different Local Authorities areas will benefit from the grant this year. The scheme has been based around pilot projects undertaken with the Environment Agency in the wake of the floods of summer 2007.

Floodguards were heavily involved in the vast majority of the pilot projects, including “on property” protection works in Bleasby in Nottinghamshire, Leeds in conjunction with the city council, Cumbria and Lewes in Sussex. In addition, vast experience was also gained by a direct Environment Agency contract delivered in Gunthorpe and also a project funded by the ODPM in Carlisle a few years ago. FGS installed floodguards to doors, air brick covers to vents and in some cases, sump pumps and Non Return Valves (NRV) to properties that required them.

The works were undertaken after a flood risk survey had been carried out on the properties by professional assessors, who specified the type of products required to make the property resilient to flood. Working closely with both the Environment Agency and the Local Authorities in their relevant area’s FGS were able to deliver highly successful, on time and on budget pilots.

Property owners were impressed with the survey, the installation process and the quality of the products installed. Local Authorities were impressed with FGS’s ability to deliver a scheme to multiple home owners simultaneously and with the minimum of inconvenience. The Environment Agency was particularly impressed with the quality of the independent surveys and again with the overall quality of FGS’s service.

FGS are now looking forward to the opportunity to impress further Local Authorities, Property owners, the Environment Agency and DEFRA again with the quality of our flood mitigation products, our installation teams and our customer service.