What causes flooding in Reading and Caversham?

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

North Reading and Lower Caversham have flooded many times in recent years. In 2012 and 2014, low lying areas of

Caversham flooded, causing internal flooding to residential and commercial properties in the area. You may also

remember the flooding in 2003, where many houses were surrounded by floodwater and a number of roads, including

Napier Road, Amersham Road, Paddock Road, Send Road and Piggots Lane were closed, some for as long as 5 days.

The Environment Agency maintains rivers and streams and operates weirs and locks in and around Reading and

Caversham. This work reduces flood risk from smaller, more regular floods, but more significant flooding cannot be

reduced by watercourse maintenance alone. The best scientific evidence suggests that severe weather events are likely

to be more frequent and more intense in future, increasing the risk of flooding across the United Kingdom.

We are investigating how we can reduce the impact from a major river flood on a scale similar to 1947. A similar sized

flood would cause major disruption to the local economy, access routes and residents at large. It would create road

blockages, transport disruptions and could cause water damage to homes and businesses. We take climate change

projections into account in all modelling and planning work. Based on for the likelihood of more frequent flood events,

we have identified a range of options which could reduce flooding in the north Reading and lower Caversham area. All

options we are investigating reduce flooding from rivers, however surface water flooding is still a risk.

There is still a significant amount of investigation required, we are sharing the options with you now to gain your views

so we can take them into consideration when deciding which, if any, of the options we can take forward.

Photograph source unknown

Major floods, on the scale of 1947 are very

rare… history shows they do happen, and

could happen again.

1947 flooding

What have we done so far?

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

Planning flood map

Environmental surveys and ground investigation

We have completed surveys to help us understand the

Ecology in the areas where we could develop a scheme to

reduce flooding. These have included surveys to establish

what species may be present in the areas the works may

take place. You may have seen our contractors carrying out

ground investigations using diggers or drilling rigs as shown

in the photograph. We have to carry out this work early so

we can find out what may or may not be possible.

We are continuing our programme of surveys over the next

few months. We will plan these to ensure there is as little disruption as possible.

What areas are at risk of flooding from the

River Thames?

To work out how we can reduce flooding we must

first understand the flooding mechanisms in the

Reading and Caversham area. The main risk of

flooding in north Reading and Lower Caversham is

from the River Thames. Due to the flat urban

landscape of Reading flood water can remain for

long periods of time.

The flood map represents the existing flood risk from

the River Thames. The dark blue shows areas that

are likely to flood in a large flood, we have not

recently experienced a flood of this size. The closest

comparison is the flooding in 2003 which was

smaller. The lighter blue shows the additional areas

that would flood in a major flood, such as was

experienced in 1947.

Large flood Major flood Main river

A Flood Alleviation Scheme for north Reading and Lower Caversham?

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

We have looked into a number of different ways to reduce flooding, the techniques here we

have considered and may be used in combination with other techniques. On their own they

only reduce flooding from smaller floods. For major floods they need to be used along side

permanent measures such as flood walls and embankments.

Property level resilience

Property level resilience involves making changes to individual

properties to reduce the risk of floodwater entering homes and

businesses. It can be used in combination with larger

flood alleviation schemes to reduce flooding.

Temporary barriers

Due to the length of temporary barriers that would be needed to reduce flood risk in this area, it would

not be practical to rely on these alone. Some areas are not possible to access to get barriers in place. In

combination with other techniques temporary barriers could be beneficial.

Diverting flow

We have looked into whether

diverting flood water through the

area would reduce flood risk.

This is very difficult to achieve

due to the lack of space, without

severely impacting existing

residential areas.

Flood storage areas

On its own there is not enough

room to hold the amount of

water needed to reduce

flooding from major events.

In combination with other

techniques to reduce flooding

this could be beneficial.

Example of Temporary

barriers being tested.Environment Agency members

setting up temporary barriers.

Often prevention is the best

strategy.

There are a number of property

level resilience products, including

flood doors, door barriers,

automatically closing airbricks, non-

return valves and sump pumps to

avoid or minimise water getting

inside a property. The level of their

effectiveness would be limited here

because flood water can remain

high for a number of days. However

they could still help to reduce

severity of flooding, especially if used in combination with other methods

A Flood Alleviation Scheme for north Reading and Lower Caversham?

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

Dredging can be an important part of maintenance but is not

enough on its own to reduce flooding from a major flood.

The Environment Agency maintains rivers and streams and operates

weirs and locks. This work reduces flooding from smaller, more

regular floods, but more significant flooding cannot be reduced by

watercourse maintenance alone.

Dredging can be an important part of the Environment Agency’s

general maintenance programme. We consider each location

carefully and do it where we know it will make a difference.

Understanding where dredging will and won’t reduce flooding is

essential. We must be sure it will reduce flooding to local homes and

businesses and won’t increase flood risk downstream.

Dredging the River Thames would not significantly reduce flood risk

in this area. In many cases, dredging isn’t the best long-term solution

because rivers can quickly silt-up again. It can even increase flood

risk. Studies have indicated the River Thames itself is self-regulating.

Dredging can be costly, disruptive and environmentally damaging,

and would require frequent re-dredging as the natural tendency of all

rivers after dredging is to deposit silt and return to their more natural

dimensions.

Why isn’t dredging an alternative? Can natural flood

management help?

These are processes that enhance the

natural features of a river, to reduce

flooding impact on a community. Methods

include slowing flow of water, improving

soil quality so more water is absorbed and

creating more areas for water to be

stored.

These techniques can help reduce

flooding from minor floods in some areas.

In this area they would not help reduce

flooding from major floods.

Flood walls and embankments

Embankments are raised lengths of land which will be grassed to give

them a natural look.

Flood walls can be made of different materials depending on where

they are. Where possible we would design a flood wall to blend in

with the surrounding area.

All options that we are considering involve a combination of

permanent flood walls and embankments.

The photo gives and example of what a flood wall can look like. Photo courtesy of the Environment Agency

Options to reduce flooding in north Reading and Lower Caversham

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

We have been investigating options to reduce flooding from the

River Thames in the Lower Caversham and north Reading

area. All proposals shown here are in the early stages of design

and may change as a result of feedback from this engagement

and new information that arises as we develop a design.

We would like your views on which option you think we should

take forward. We are running a consultation which we hope you

are able to respond to. We will use the feedback in combination

with technical information when deciding which option we can

develop.

All options include building flood walls and embankments. The

difference between the options is in the length of the flood walls

and embankments. Option 1 is the shortest, option 2 is an

extension of option 1 and includes some temporary defences,

option 3 is the same as option 2 with the addition of further

embankment and walls to the south of the River Thames..

Option 4, not shown on a diagram here, is to do no new work,

but continue with our existing work which includes maintaining rivers and streams and operating weirs and locks.

As we increase the length of the flood walls and embankments

we increase the area that would benefit from reduced flood risk

from the River Thames. However, we also find that the cost of

building the scheme increases and we would need to secure extra funding to be able to deliver these.

As with all schemes it is essential that we do not increase flood

risk to other communities as a result of our work. We are

investigating ways in which we can ensure there would be no

increase in flood risk to others, as a result of any of the options.

If after further investigation we find it is not possible to reduce

flood risk in these areas without increasing flood risk to other

communities then we will not continue with these options, even if the public consultation shows them to be a favoured option.

An overview of the options we have been considering and would like your views on…

Option 1, Nire road to Christchurch playing fields

Option 2 – Nire Road to Promenade Road

Option 3 – Nire Road to Prominade road

including Waterman Place to Reading Bridge.

Options being considered to reduce flooding

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

This is the shortest length of flood walls and embankments. It begins at Ruskin Road near the Berry Brook and

ends at Westfield Road Playgroud, off Gosbrook Road. You can see approximately where the wall and

embankments could go on map 1 below. Please note that as we are in the early stages of the project the exact

location of these flood walls and embankments is likely to change slightly from the alignment shown as we

progress the detail of the design.

Our initial investigations into Option 1 show that this option will reduce flood risk to homes, businesses roads

and infrastructure currently at risk of flooding from the River Thames. It will reduce the risks for floods up to a

similar size as was experienced in 1947. The 1947 flood was a major flood causing widespread flooding.

Of the 3 options to build different lengths of flood wall and embankment, this option would require the least

funding contributions compared to options 2 and 3.

The blue areas of flooding on this map indicate the flood risk from the River Thames now without the

embankment and flood walls. If we develop one of the options we will hope to reduce flooding from the River

Thames to all areas behind the flood walls and embankments.

We cannot remove flood risk entirely only reduce it.

Option 1 – Nire Road to Christchurch playing fields

Options being considered to reduce flooding

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

This is a slightly longer option than option 1. The first length of flood walls and embankments would be exactly

the same as option 1 beginning at Ruskin Road near the Berry Brook until it reaches Christchurch playing fields,

where it would then extend along the north edge of the playing fields.

This option would require more funding contributions than option 1 as it is slightly longer, but would cost less

than option 3.

The blue areas of flooding on this map indicate the flood risk from the River Thames now without the

embankment and flood walls. If we develop one of the options we will hope to reduce flooding from the River

Thames to all areas behind the flood walls and embankments.

We cannot remove flood risk entirely only reduce it.

Option 2 – Nire Road to Promenade Road

Options being considered to reduce flooding

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

This is the same as option 2 with the addition of further embankment and walls to the south of the River Thames.

The flood embankment and walls to the south of the River Thames could begin near Caversham Bridge and end

at Reading Bridge. This option would reduce flooding behind the flood embankments and walls to the north as

with options 1 and 2. In addition it would reduce flooding to properties south of the River Thames behind the

embankment and flood walls.

This option would require more funding contributions than options 1 and 2 as it is the longest option.

The blue areas of flooding on this map indicate the flood risk from the River Thames now without the

embankment and flood walls. If we develop one of the options we will hope to reduce flooding from the River

Thames to all areas behind the flood walls and embankments.

We cannot remove flood risk entirely only reduce it.

Option 3 – Nire Road to Prominade road including Waterman Place to

Reading Bridge.

Options being considered to reduce flooding

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

The final option is not to build a scheme, to continue as we are now with existing maintenance work to rivers and

streams and operation of weirs and locks in the area.

This work reduces flood risk from smaller, more regular floods, but more significant flooding cannot be reduced

by watercourse maintenance alone. The best scientific evidence suggests that severe weather events are likely

to be more frequent and more intense in future, increasing the risk of flooding across the United Kingdom.

Option 4 – Continue as we are now

What are the next steps?

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

What happens next

We will consider all of the following information and use it together to make a decision on which, if any

of the options we will take forward.

• Landowners wishes, as shared through results of this consultation, feedback from individual meetings and

feedback from the landowner drop-in held on the 26 June 2018.

• Public views, as shown by the results of this consultation and feedback gathered at our public drop-ins.

• Planning application requirements and recommendations.

• Technical restrictions. When we develop the detail of the design we may discover physical restrictions

that have not shown up during our initial investigations, these could include space available for construction,

size of foundations required, archaeological findings, endangered species, to name a few. Any such findings

could mean that we have to change the detail of the option or even consider a different, previously

discounted option.

• Cost of the proposal and funding available. The project would be partly funded by central government, but

there is still a need to find more funding, for example from organisations and businesses that will benefit.

• The time it will take to design, build and construct

• Maintenance. We would need to agree who would be responsible for maintaining any new structures

before putting a new structure in place.

• Wildlife and landscape. If we develop an option then wildlife and landscape will be taken into

consideration, and where possible we will look to improve landscape and habitat. We will always mitigate for

any habitat and species that has been unavoidably impacted as a result of work we do to reduce flooding.

Partnership funding

If we decide to develop one of the options it would require partnership funding. This means that while some of

the funding for the scheme can be raised through government grants, it is likely it would not be enough to cover

the whole cost of a scheme. We would need to find further funding from local beneficiaries such as large

businesses and organisations to help us cover the full cost of designing, building and maintaining a scheme.

Nearby communities

We will not develop any option that would increase flood risk to properties outside the area we are working in.

We work to reduce flooding, not to transfer it from one community to another. If at any stage in our work we find that our

proposed work could result in increasing flood risk to a community near to or downstream of the scheme, then we

would look for ways to change the design to remove this risk. If we cannot find a solution to reduce flooding without

increasing risk to other communities then we will not continue with that option and will have to consider different

options. It may be that none of the options we are now sharing become possible and we have to look at alternative

solutions.

Steps we will follow if we decide to develop one of the options

How can we reduce flooding

in north Reading and Lower

Caversham?

To contact the project team, or to request to be added to the mailing list email

reading&cavershamscheme@environment-agency.gov.uk

To respond to our online consultation go tohttps://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/thames/reading-and-caversham-flood-reduction-options

Complete

surveys and

Investigations

Gain full

business

case

approval

Continue to

develop

options

Public

drop-in

Construction

begins subject

to approvals

and fundingSubmit

planning

application