Reporting Flooding

The Environment Agency have provided the following update:

Following the widespread effects of Storm Ciarán both on the coast and inland, we would like to stress the importance of reporting flooding. If your home or business has flooded, please make sure you report it as soon as you are able to. There are lots of reasons why you should report flooding, most importantly so authorities and agencies can respond to close roads, unblock gullies, and provide an emergency response if required.

While we do have a significant number of staff out on the ground, due to the scale of the event we are unable to cover all areas. We are seeking to build a comprehensive picture of impacts across Wessex so we would be very grateful if you could provide any available information regarding flooding in your area with as much detail as possible on timing and location. Please report online using the Flood Online Reporting Tool or you can respond directly to this email address with any photo or video attachments. You can also contact the Environment Agency Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60. In an emergency please dial 999.

Useful information includes:

  • Residential and commercial properties that are known to have flooded
  • Road, rail or other transport infrastructure affected
  • Any photos or videos of the above and inundated areas of floodplains

Find out more Blog: The Importance of Reporting Flooding | The Flood Hub

 Our advice to the public is to:

  • Stay safe and not enter floodwater.
  • Stay away from seafronts, quaysides and jetties, due to the risk of overtopping by waves.
  • Call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 for updates on flooding, to sign up for flood warnings, or to report flooding.
  • Go to the Gov.uk website or search ‘know my flood risk’ to sign up for Environment Agency flood warnings, receive information on the risk in your area and what to do in a flood.
  • Sign up for Flood Warnings
  • Visit the Environment Agency website www.gov.uk/environment-agency which contains information on current river levels and flooding
  • Follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter) using @EnvAgencySW
  • Visit our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/environmentagencywessex

Many thanks,

Intelligence and Reporting

Flood and Coastal Risk Management | Wessex

Environment Agency | Rivers House, East Quay, Bridgwater, TA6 4YS

Wiltshire Council Briefing Notes

The Briefing Notes from Wiltshire Council are available as attachments below covering:

  • Substantive Highways scheme bid process (for schemes which exceed the discretionary budget)
  • Christmas Food, Unity, Energy and Laughter (FUEL) programme
  • Coronation Orchard planting fund

Right of Way closures due to landslips

Wiltshire Council have closed a section of the BTOW32 footpath at the foot of the hill and also the BTOW38 bridleway at the top of the hill. This is due to the landslips caused by the recent floods.

Details are shown in the attachments below.

Wiltshire Council Briefing Notes

The latest two Wiltshire Council Briefings are available as attachments below.

Community Governance Review. Ref: RWB02

 

a request has been submitted for a Community Governance Review (CGR) which involves Broad Town.  

 

The submission has been made by a council officer and relates to an anomaly involving only a few properties. The request will be included within the CGR Review for 2023/24, which commenced on 11 September 2023.  

 

Information Sheets for each of the main scheme proposals submitted for consideration during the 2023/24 CGR tranche are available on the CGR webpage. Below is attached the Information sheet for the Royal Wootton Bassett requests for information, including the map of the relevant properties.

Anomaly – Minor changes to a boundary

To review an area where a discrepancy has been identified, with properties being in the wrong electoral division. The anomaly relates to properties 101 and 103 Broadtown Hill in Broad Town.

The majority of the land and property at 101 Broadtown Hill, are in Broad Town parish, however, part of the land and property of no. 103 Broadtown Hill is in Clyffe Pypard parish even though property No. 103 has a postal address of Broad Town.

Reason for Request

To carry out a review of an area where a minor boundary or other anomalous arrangement has been identified.

The pre-consultation surveys for each of the CGR scheme areas are now available online and will remain open until 26 November 2023. Councils are urged to submit comments and to circulate and promote the link to the surveys locally where possible.

Community Governance Review
Information Gathering Survey
31 October – 26 November 2023

The Electoral Review Committee will meet publicly on 13 December 2023 to consider each Review area. An information pack will be compiled from the data and responses available at the time. The Committee will then decide whether to make draft recommendations in line with CGR criteria.

People may also send representations to this email address

LOCAL FLOOD EMERGENCY CONTACT REQUIRED

At the moment Wiltshire Council does not have an emergency contact for the Broad Town community in a weather emergency, and have asked if someone would be willing to take on the role. 

They need a name, email address and telephone number in case they need to ring. 

The information is stored on a spreadsheet accessed by the weather emergency team, drainage and emergency planning; it may be shared with the Environment Agency as the statutory partner as requested, but contact will only be made in a weather emergency, or with information pertinent to that role, e.g. training, information, meeting, seminar etc.

A Flood Warden role profile is shown below as an attachment.

If you require any more information or to volunteer please email the Clerk. 

 

Flood Planning

As Broad Town residents are very aware, flooding can be a problem at any time and in particular with the very wet weather that is becoming regular and difficult.

The Parish Council are trying to address the problem in various ways despite its limited powers, including regular pursual of essential highways maintenance tasks by the local authority but also performing local clearance work by our Councillors, and aiming to develop a local flood plan.

There is also a lot that can be done individually, as householders have obligations to keeping waterways and drains clear as well, eg holding to account contractors for proper disposal of waste, such as have been seen to use leaf blowers which blow debris into drains, or polystyrene waste from the building work; unrequited items such as childrens’ toys have also been found in cleared drain areas, creating detrimental blockages.

LOCAL EMERGENCY CONTACT REQUIRED

At the moment Wiltshire Council does not have an emergency contact for the community in a weather emergency, and we would ask if someone would be willing to take on the role. They need a name, email address and telephone number in case we need to ring them.  The information is stored on a spreadsheet accessed by the weather emergency team, drainage and emergency planning; it may be shared with the Environment Agency as the statutory partner as requested, but contact will only be made in a weather emergency, or with information pertinent to that role, e.g. training, information, meeting, seminar etc.

It might also be worth noting Wiltshire’s sandbag policy document:

Flood-sandbag-policy.pdf (wiltshire.gov.uk)

 

Police and Crime Commissioners lead campaign to tackle rural crime

Police and Crime Commissioners lead campaign to tackle rural crime: Op Ragwort 1200x675

Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson, has joined with his counterparts in the south-west to lead a new campaign and bring together all police forces in the region to combat the involvement of Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) in rural crime.

Under the new initiative known as Operation Ragwort, the OCGs who target rural communities and are at the forefront of crimes such as burglary, the theft of farm vehicles and equipment, poaching and hare coursing, will be the focus of a regional, coordinated, campaign led by the south-west region’s Police and Crime Commissioners.

Mr Wilkinson said Ragwort – with mutual support and cooperation across the south-west – will provide an intelligence rich picture of the level of criminality enabling forces to better disrupt and apprehend those responsible, making Wiltshire safer for rural residents.

He said:

“We need to further build our capability to tackle those OCGs engaged in acquisitive rural crime, not only in Wiltshire but regionally and nationally and that is why there is a real need to create a new collaboration called Operation Ragwort.

“Operation Ragwort will be an intelligence, evidence and data-led south-west Regional collaboration to robustly tackle rural and heritage acquisitive, and other rural crimes, where information will be collated, analysed and shared with the National Rural Crime Unit.

The National Rural Crime Network has commissioned research into the link between rural crime and organised criminal gangs, and preliminary evidence suggests that rural crime is being used by gangs to fund other criminal activities including links to the international drugs trade.

Planning Applications notified on Broad Town PC website

From now, we are adding new Planning Applications in Broad Town to our website with essential details and the link to each application on the Wiltshire Council Planning portal.

You will find the page under ‘Your Community’ on our homepage: Planning Applications – Broad Town Parish Council

aerial photography of ruralThey will be included in the News section separately so that they appear on the list of updates sent weekly to website subscribers.

To subscribe, just enter your email address in the brown ‘Subscribe for Updates’ box on the right of the homepage or News page.

Currently any remaining undecided applications are listed, and will be added as new ones occur.

 

 

 

Wiltshire Council Local Plan – Consultation for RWB

A meeting of the Planning Committee is to be held in the Sixth
Form Lecture Theatre, Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, Lime Kiln SN4 7HG on Thursday, 21st September 2023 at 7.00 pm for transaction of the business given in the Agenda attached.
Members of the public are invited to address the council at this meeting at 7.00pm. Members of the public are requested to send their question to by 12noon on the day before the meeting and confirm whether they will be in physical attendance or require an officer to read out the question on their behalf.
Priority of physical attendance will be given to the press and those that have sent their public question in advance and will read it out, remaining seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis.