Leicestershire County Council’s plea to ‘work together’ after unprecedented floods affect hundreds of homes

A landlord in Great Glen made headlines after bravely rescued a woman stranded in a car.A landlord in Great Glen made headlines after bravely rescued a woman stranded in a car.
A landlord in Great Glen made headlines after bravely rescued a woman stranded in a car.
“We must continue to work together to help reduce the impact of flooding,” says Leicestershire County Council after nearly 900 homes were impacted by unprecedented floods earlier this month – including many in the Harborough district.

The county council says it is continuing to support residents in Leicestershire after a month’s worth of rain fell in a couple of days during the first week of January.

River levels hit their highest point since records began and the flood warning across Leicestershire and Rutland was escalated to an unprecedented ‘risk to life’.

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Some 160 roads were flooded and over 60 people rescued from properties and 27 from cars.

Meanwhile, Leicestershire Police handled over 2,100 calls on 6 January - a 40-to-50 per cent rise on average daily demand while East Midlands Ambulance Service declared a critical incident.

Communities have been coming together to support each other, with 118 flood wardens out and about supporting affected areas.

Many meetings have been held to discuss ways to lobby authorities and the government into action.

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The county council, which looks after the region’s highways, has pleaded with the Government to release cash from its ‘Flood Recovery Framework’ to support those affected and to drive national changes.

In the meantime, assistant chief executive Zafar Saleem said the community must continue to work together to help reduce the impact of flooding - including people ‘being aware and prepared’

He explained: “It’s too early to say what the exact reasons were. But we do know that we’ve seen levels of rainfall, snow melt and river flows like never before. This simply overwhelmed drainage, watercourses, and defences.

“For some people it’s the second time their homes and businesses have flooded within a year. People are understandably angry and worried about the future. As a partnership, we’re continuing to support local residents, but more needs to be done to tackle this national issue.

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“This rainfall caused major flooding from the river network impacting so many communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

“Sadly, it’s not possible to fully defend all households against events like this which are happening more frequently across the country. We must continue to work together to help reduce the impact of flooding. This includes people being aware and prepared for floods.”

David Turnbull, the Environment Agency’s flood risk manager, called it ‘a major event’.

He said: “Flooding can be devastating for people. We’ll continue to work with our partners to help communities be more resilient to flood risk. Initial estimates show that our defences prevented flooding to over 2,000 properties.”

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Council officers are visiting homes to provide support and advice. Councils and other agencies continue the clean-up operation, sweeping roads and collecting flood damaged property.

Residents affected by the floods are reminded of the support and advice available:

  • From the National Flood Forum
  • Sign up for flood warnings
  • Check for flooding in your area
  • Follow the Environment Agency on social media
  • District and borough councils
  • Leicestershire County Council’s website, Leicester City Council’s website and Rutland County Council’s website

Residents are urged to report flooding on the county council’s website.

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