As the Lead Local Flood Authority for the Borough, we have a duty to develop, apply and monitor a Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (PDF) that:
The purpose of this is to increase the safety of people across the Borough by reducing the number of people at risk of flooding, increasing the resilience of local communities and reducing the impact that flooding can have.
This Strategy supersedes the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) of 2015 and provides a revision of how the Borough and its partners will manage flood risk within the Borough over the next five years.
The revised LFRMS seeks to build on the challenges already known to us and take forward
the new challenges we face today and in the future. The Strategy was approved at Executive Committee on 27 April 2022.
The Strategy focuses on our long-term approach to managing local flood risk across the Borough (as identified in our Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment) and provides a framework for the co-ordination of flood risk management through partnership working with other local organisations and agencies.
The Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) will enable the Council to fulfil its statutory obligations under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and will provide a framework to actively manage and reduce flood risk within the Borough, to help protect vulnerable communities and deliver sustainable regeneration and growth.
The LFRMS builds on the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) for the Upper Ouse which was approved by the Executive Committee in July 2011.
The Strategy is a culmination of work carried out since the legislation was enacted in 2010, from the preliminary assessment of flood risk, strategic environmental assessment, stakeholder consultation, through to Strategy production.
Bedford Borough Council also produced a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) under European Directive 2001/42/EC.
The Directive requires formal assessment of plans and programmes that are likely to have significant effects (either positive or negative) on the environment. A SEA is a screening process and confirmed the requirement for the LFRMS.
Email: floodrisk@bedford.gov.uk