We have flooding policies and provide guidance on flood risk so we can plan for flooding and reduce its impact on Medway area.
Surface water management plans
Local flooding issues that are caused by heavy rainfall are investigated in Surface water management plans. The plans identify and look into ways to reduce local flooding and recommend an Action Plan to put agreed management measures into action.
Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments
An overview of local flood risk in Medway including surface water, ground water and flooding from ditches and streams are detailed in Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments.
The assessment identifies areas of significant flood risk, past flood events and future flood risks.
Investigating floods
Under the Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, we will respond to every reported flooding incident and make an assessment as to whether to carry out a detailed investigation under the terms of the Act.
Read Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act
Section 19 investigations
We carried out the following for the flooding in May 2018 and September 2023:
- read the Section 19 investigation for May 2018
- read the Section 19 investigation for September 2023
- read the Callout for September 2023.
You can request flood investigation reports by emailing floodrisk@medway.gov.uk.
Local strategy
The Medway Local Flood Risk Management Strategy identifies objectives to manage local flood risk to local communities. It considers all sources of local flood risk such as surface water, groundwater, and ordinary watercourses.
Strategic Flood Risk Assessments
Our Strategic Flood Risk Assessment supports the Local Plan to help make planning decisions. It assesses the risk of flooding from all sources including surface water, rivers, and the sea and includes an allowance for climate change.
It also considers the growing impact of land use changes and development on flood risk and ways to reduce flood risk to existing communities and developments.
We are currently working on a new Strategic Flood Risk Assessment which will replace the existing assessment.