Gloucestershire 'must take flooding as seriously as Japan does with earthquakes' as extreme downpours increase

Gloucestershire needs to take flooding as seriously as Japan does with earthquakes when designing and planning new homes. This is the view of Tewkesbury councillors who have backed the Borough Council’s new plan to better serve their residents.

The authority’s vision is to focus on caring for people, the environment and the Borough. Among its eight top priorities are tackling the climate and ecological emergency, improving flood resilience and managing housing and growth.

The county could see more flood-proof housing in future if extreme rainfall continues. In the Netherlands they design flood-proof properties on floats while in places like Florida many beachfront homes are built on stilts.

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Councillor Paul McLain (C, Highnam with Haw Bridge) told the council on May 15 that flood resilience is vital. He said the council should take flooding as seriously as Japan does with earthquakes. Many East Asian country's buildings are designed to withstand tremors.

“I do think we should be more robust and talk about climate resilience. If we are honest, even if we went carbon negative as a country tomorrow it would have minimal impact on the pressures we are facing.

“And flooding events we now see will continue to increase whatever we do. We need to build in climate resilience into our planning our designs and in every single factor we have some influence with.

“This is a bad link but when you look at Japan, their constant pressure from earthquakes, that influences all their designs. We need to be realistic and that is what we have to do as an authority.”

Council leader Richard Stanley (LD, Cleeve West), who presented the plan to full council, agreed with Cllr McLain’s points about resilience. “Sadly I agree with you on the resilience,” he said. “And it’s a damning indictment that we are at that point.”

Further afield in the Forest of Dean district, council leaders received many calls from people affected by flash flooding on May 12. Climate emergency cabinet member Chris McFarling (G, St Briavels) said he was getting calls from people across the district from people saying their property had been flooded for the first time.

“Some of them phoned me and said it had never happened to them before,” he said. It was torrential.

"It’s going to get worse. We’ve got to work on resilience, adaptation and on mitigation.” He said he is liaising with officers to see if residents can get compensation from a government scheme.