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An award-winning volunteer scheme which sees residents help to better protect their community from flooding is celebrating the milestone launch of its 50^th scheme, in Colwick.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Community Flood Signage Scheme helps residents to support their community should flooding or severe weather hit, and in Colwick, the launch of the new volunteer scheme comes after the quick actions of residents during Storm Henk in January 2024 inspired the community to think about the risk of future flooding.

Intense, heavy rain during Storm Henk fell onto already saturated ground and when the River Trent reached near record levels, watercourses, including one running from Vale Road into the Trent via a nearby business park, were not able to release water.

16 homes on Vale Road and Chaworth Road and five businesses on Churchill Business Park were flooded as a result of the watercourse overflowing, and many of the residents who took action to stop vehicles driving through the flood water are now proud to be community flood signage volunteers. 

One proud volunteer is Abby Booker who explained that flooding was worsened by bow waves created by vehicles driving down Vale Road and pushing flood water into homes.

Abby said: “When I moved to Colwick a few years ago, I knew that we lived in a flood plain, but I assumed that because of the flood embankment, we would be protected from flooding.

“In Storm Henk we saw that the watercourse backed up and this meant that the road and some of the houses were flooded. During this storm, a lot of residents really wanted to help and so we got together to distribute sandbags and create makeshift road closures.”

She continued: “Effectively, when cars drove through the flood water it caused bow waves which pushed water further into houses and so after Storm Henk the county council were great at helping us to understand what we could do about it as local residents, and one of the things was the Community Flood Signage Scheme.

“We wanted to set up a scheme so that in the event of another storm we are able to close the road with the proper signage and cones, and hopefully this will stop cars from driving through the flooded street.”

So, how does it all work? The county council’s Flood Risk Management team supports volunteers to agree trigger points which, once met, will result in trained volunteers from the community setting out a road closure. Examples of these trigger points are flood water levels reaching a set marker or a road becoming submerged to the top of the kerb level.

Volunteers are then given water safety and risk control training in partnership with Via East Midlands and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. The county council provides personal protective equipment, signage and equipment and access to online refresher training and events organised by the county council to bring volunteers together to share knowledge and experiences. There are now over 650 volunteers across the County under the scheme.

Councillor Bert Bingham, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “This is a brilliant scheme which allows fully trained volunteers to react to flooding in their community at crucial moments.

“We are proud that there’s now 50 of these schemes across Nottinghamshire and I was delighted to meet new volunteers in Colwick and hear about what made them sign up to the scheme.

“These volunteers will now have access to road closure signs and personal protective equipment to use should flooding hit their community again.

“By supporting and training volunteers in the community we are building more resilient communities and I would like to offer my personal thanks to all of our dedicated volunteers across Nottinghamshire for all their hard work and efforts in protecting their communities from flooding.

“Over the last few years we have seen only too well that flooding can devastate communities and I am pleased to hear that there are more of these schemes in development across the county.”

Nik who is also a new volunteer, said: “I wanted to volunteer because when my local area flooded for the first time in decades, I felt quite helpless. I was there trying to stop cars from driving through the flood water and many ignored us.

“When we found out that we could create a scheme and have the power to properly close the road I wanted to sign up to try and make things better for those affected as it’s nice to be able to help those who need it.”

If you would like to become a Flood Signage Warden, please contact the Nottinghamshire County Council flood risk management team by emailing: flood.team@nottscc.gov.uk