National Flood Forum Open Letter
Brackenbury Residents Association (BRA) has been approached recently by representatives of the National Flood Forum, a charity set up specifically to assist people who have been flooded. BRA has supplied them with a lot of background information about the flooding in Brackenbury Village.
We also arranged a walk around of the Brackenbury area with James Leaney and Edward Flaherty and Malcolm Carpenter and Brendan Smith from the BRA Committee, explained to them the history and background of flooding experienced by our members and other local residents, particularly related to the basement flooding event which happened in July of 2021. James is offering to hold a meeting for our residents affected by the flooding.
The letter is published at the end of this report, please contact him directly (the email address to contact him is in the letter) if you think that this would be valuable for you. You will all remember that there was no warning and just how difficult it was for anyone to make contact with the Council, Thames Water and others at the time.
They are offering help to provide some form of warning and advice in the case of any future events and will be able to provide a bridge between the various agencies currently responsible.
BRA have also briefed them about what we believe are the main concerns of people
affected, namely:
1) That Thames Water should take greater action to reduce flood risk. Our preferred
option remains for them to instal more FLIPS ( some residents may
have had one of these fitted more recently – if so please let us know what your
experience has been or if you are still waiting).
2) That more notice should be taken by the Council and Thames Water about the
impact of new developments in the central Hammersmith area (numerous new
apartments and hotels being built in particular) and the potential that such
developments might have on significantly increasing the regular flows through the
local sewers and exacerbating future risks of sewer flooding when there is heavy
rain.
3) That many residents are still finding it difficult to obtain affordable contents and
property insurance and this is partly due to the existing limitations of the FloodRe
scheme.
We also discussed the need for the Council to implement more sustainable drainage
initiatives (SuDs) around the area to ameliorate flood risk to a small degree and
possibly to assist residents with obtaining water butts to hold rainwater back from
entering the sewer system, as every little may help. See the open letter below for details.
Message to people affected by flooding in the Brackenbury area in July 2021
Hello,
I’m James. My colleague Ed and I are Flood Engagement Officers with the National
Flood Forum. We are a fully independent charity which was established by flooded
people, to support communities who are living with flood risk: National Flood Forum
– a charity to help, support and represent people at risk of flooding.
As part of the London Community Flood Action Programme, we are working with risk
management authorities and flooded communities to ensure that residents play an
active role in determining how they are protected against flooding in the future.
Recently we have begun working with risk management authorities, including
Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council and Thames Water, and the local
community to address flood risk in the Brackenbury area.
As such, we are hoping to hold a meeting with members of the Brackenbury
community who have been affected by flooding, to learn about your experiences,
and discuss how we can help to address your concerns going forward.
If you are interested in attending such a meeting, please get in touch via the contact
details below and we can begin to schedule a suitable time and venue.
Email: James@Floodforum.org.uk
Equally, if you have any immediate questions or concerns regarding issues such as
insurance, reinstatement and flood products, please do get in touch with the National
Flood Forum helpline at: 01299 403 055.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
James Leaney.