The Environment Agency Scheme to build a reservoir was officially started on 6 October 2023. The event was covered by Notts TV and ITV
The Environment Agency (EA) are active in many ways in helping alleviate the flooding issues in Lowdham and have created their own website ( https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/east-midlands/lowdham/ ) to keep the community informed. They also meet monthly by Zoom with a team from the Parish Council and Lowdham Flag. At the November meeting the EA commented as follows
The Environment Agency submitted the Lowdham Cocker Beck Flood Alleviation Scheme (“Lowdham FAS”) Full Business Case to the Large Projects Review Group for assurance, and full planning application to Newark and Sherwood District Council on Friday 4th and Tuesday 8th November respectively. These submissions are a milestone in the Scheme and the final step ahead of approval to start construction.
The assurance process and planning determination is expected to last into January 2023, and once the planning application number is available the Environment Agency will include this within future stakeholder updates.
The construction phase will commence immediately after both approvals are secured, once started the construction programme is due to be complete in Autumn 2024.
Lowdham Flag congratulate the EA on reaching this milestone, and in particular for the perseverance of skill of the whole EA team in achieving this. This is the furthest Lowdham has got towards achieving a scheme and we look forward to progress continuing to be made to build the scheme to protect Lowdham.
The laminated overview will be updated shortly, in the meantime the September 2022 is shown below
The areas the EA are working on include
- The “Main scheme” which is currently a reservoir or reservoirs in between Lowdham and Lambley. The detailed plans have been submitted in November 2022 (22/02188/FULM). The original planning application was submitted in November 2021 but was withdrawn because the original plan no longer met the latest Water Framework Directive requirements. Links to the application and the other EA updates can be accessed here
- The “Left Bank Recovery” scheme – recovery work repairing the left bank of the Cocker Beck by Lowdham football / cricket pitch to its original state. Work started in September 2021 and was completed in Summer 2022 with the fencing being removed in October 2022. The pitch will be usable for football from the 2023/24 season once the grass has become firmly established and capable of taking the wear and tear of football matches. Further details and official updates here
- Earlier alert / warning system. The EA have recently updated their alerts / warning system and now call it ‘Check for Flooding’. It is excellent and we encourage people to sign up at https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk. They have also give us an additional “Operational Alert” to allow us to alert our Paired Volunteers.