Central Beds Council awarded £6m to fight flooding in Pix Brook

Central Bedfordshire Council’s Executive has approved approximately £6million to fight flood risks in Pix Brook, including Arlesey and Stotfold.

The council was one of 25 areas to be successfully shortlisted for grant funding under the Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme, which will help it "to better monitor, respond and adapt to changing flood risks" over the next six years.

The project will advance CBC's capacity around emerging flood technologies and "unlock new ways of working with partner organisations and communities" in Central Beds.

Councillor Ian Dalgarno, Executive Member for Community Services, said: “This grant-funded project will assist the council in very important targeted flood management and prevention work. The area of Pix Brook has a long-standing history of flooding and water quality issues.

“This innovative project will see significant investment made to improve the management of flood risk and provide greater resilience against the threat of future flooding in the area.”

The project will manage flood risk using information technology in the ‘Pix Brook’ catchment, which also encompasses Letchworth Garden City in neighbouring Hertfordshire.

Funding will enable pilot schemes for the testing of new remote sensors to gather real time data, influence flow across the catchment and make changes to the way existing flood infrastructure is managed.

The next steps are for an Outline Business Case (OBC) to be completed and submitted to the Environment Agency before the end of June 2022.