Flood Alleviation Scheme
About the scheme
Great Shefford Flood Alleviation Association (GSFAA) was established with the aim of helping to coordinate, communicate and fundraise for a long-term solution.
GSFAA, the Environment Agency and West Berkshire Council have proposed a scheme to help steer the water coming down the side of the A338 towards Shefford away from the rear of the houses
Great Shefford has been subject to a number of flood events in the last 20 years. Events in 1995, 1999 and 2000/01, 2012 and 2014 were directly related to flooding of the Great Shefford Stream that runs along the A338 through the village and north towards Wantage.
The recent 2014 flooding event in Great Shefford resulted in a total of 37 properties affected, with 15 dwellings suffering from water entering the property. A number of families were left out of their homes for up to 1.5-2 years in some cases.
The flooding also impacted on the sewerage system with surcharging into properties and the environment, including the Internationally designated wildlife site of the River Lambourn. Flooding in this area also affects the A338, with it being closed during some of the flood events, including 2014.
This affects local businesses and other road users and also caused power outage on one night in February 2014. With no gas mains in the village, electricity is very important for heating all residents homes.
Proposed Scheme and Funding In order to address the ongoing flood events along the Great Shefford Stream we have been working with the Environment Agency (EA) and West Berkshire Council to develop a scheme that takes the excess flow of the stream away from the dwellings and the A338 and through a bypass pipe and/or channel on the east side of the A338.
A feasibility study has been commissioned by the EA and this has provided a preferred option for mitigation, which is for most of the excess flow to be taken along a bypass pipe, with an opening at the River Lambourn end. A summary leaflet has been prepared by the EA.
As part of the scheme, the community has raised a sum of £80,000, which is necessary to achieve partnership funding from national flood defence grants.
The total cost of the preferred option (bypass pipe) is estimated by the EA as £1,423,930.
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West Berkshire ​Application Summary
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23/00663/FULMAJ | Construction of a Flood Alleviation Scheme to reduce the risk of groundwater-fed fluvial flooding to the Village of Great Shefford. The scheme consists of a 715m pipe/culvert section and approx 200m open channel section to bypass high flows from the Great Shefford stream immediately upstream of where the stream passes underneath the A338, discharging into the River Lambourn. | Land Adjacent To A338 and Beyond and Behind Brookside Filling Station Wantage Road Great Shefford Hungerford
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To view the application, please go to https://publicaccess.westberks.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple&searchType=Application and add 23/00663/FULMAJ into the search form