The above report, produced by Hampshire County Council (as part of its role as the Lead Local Flood Authority) is an addendum to the “Copythorne Village – Flood Risk Investigation Report (“The Copythorne Report”) – Produced in December 2021.
The link to the report: Copythorne South – Bartley Water.
Below are extracts from the report which set out the background to its production.
Executive Summary
- This investigation of Bartley Water has been undertaken by Hampshire County Council as the Lead Local Flood Authority to understand previous flooding events, and relevant historic occurrences, review actions taken since 2013-14; and consider what, if any, further actions may be required to address residual flood risk.
The focus has been on Shepherds Road, Chinham Road, Shepherds Close and the surrounding area.
The purpose of this report is to:
- Understand the current information available and formalise this within a single report
- Clarify the flood risk of the area
- Understand what works have been undertaken within the area
- Provide an overview of the flooding mechanism and impacts of any flooding
- Identify potential affordable engineering and non-engineering options that could reduce or better manage flood risk in the area
Whilst specific reference is made in the Copythorne Report to significant flooding that occurred in the winter of 2013-14 there is no similar comment made in “The Bartley Report” despite the flooding that occurred and which affected a number of properties in the near vicinity of Bartley Water.
Many of these properties received grants to undertake flood prevention measures to mitigate against future flooding.
Copythorne Parish Council has tried to get Hampshire County Council (the author of the report) to amend the report to include direct reference to the 2013-14 flooding.
HCC has been provided with information (supplied by the Environment Agency) on the number of properties affected in support of its request but HCC are not willing to amend the report.
We understand that the reason for the decision is that in 2022 HCC adopted a “Catchment Management Plans” approach to flooding rather than use previous Flood Risk Investigation Reports.
More information on the new approach can be found on the following page on HCC’s Website:-
A copy of the Catchment Management Plan for Test Lower (which includes parts of the Parish of Copythorne can be found using the following link: Hampshire Catchment Prioritisation Test (Lower) Catchment Management Plan – May 2023
Copythorne Parish Council is deeply disappointed by the unwillingness of HCC to amend “The Bartley Report” to include details of the historic flooding.
The Parish Council (and its Flooding Advisory Committee in particular) will continue to work with the HCC Flood & Water Management Team and the Environment Agency to assist local residents affected by flooding.
An example of this has been supporting the Hampshire Property Flood Resilience Project being run jointly by HCC and the EA.
Under this scheme a number of residents of Bartley and Cadnam have had their properties surveyed to identified potential flood prevention measures that can be implemented to help mitigate possible flooding.
Some of these measures are being supported by grant funding.
David Rigby
Clerk to Copythorne Parish Council
December 2023