Over this weekend and particularly during last night the county, LCC Highways, the Environment Agency and United Utilities worked closely with emergency services, the emergency planning teams and district/city council staff to respond to reports of flooding in a number of locations around Lancashire.
If you have experienced local flooding, or have come uncomfortably close to it below are some points that may help you:
If you have had flood water in your home or business premises, you can get advice from your buildings & contents insurers about what to do next. If you don’t have insurance, you are advised to contact Lancaster City Council for help with cleaning up.
Lancashire County Council needs to know about all flooding events, especially where it has come into private property, so that we can investigate responsibly and identify whether there may be a case for grant funding to help with long-term improvements to an area. ‘Private property’ includes, homes, gardens & garages, farms/fields and business premises.
Please report such incidents by telephone on 0300-123-6780 during normal working hours or by email any time to : highways@lancashire.gov.uk with as much detail as possible. If the information you give needs to be shared with other drainage authorities for a full investigation, Lancashire County Council will do so under carefully controlled data protection processes. They will not pass the information on to any insurance companies, trades companies, newspapers, private individuals or other people/organisations outside the flood risk management authorities. If you have already reported to another drainage authority (for example the Environment Agency, your district/city council or United Utilities), you don’t need to report it again to Lancashire County Council.
If anyone has had foul water (dirty water from sewers) coming into their property, you should report it to United Utilities on 0345-672-3723 who may be able to help with cleaning and will certainly want to investigate any possible failings in their networks.
Any long-lasting ponding of water in the road should be reported to Lancashire County Council Highways for investigation and appropriate repairs. If this is or may be connected to a blocked gully, it can be reported as a highway fault through their website https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-travel/report-it/
If it is anything more complicated, you are advised to either telephone on 0300-123-6780 during normal working hours or send the information in an email any time to : highways@lancashire.gov.uk including as much detail as possible.
If you want advice on how to manage risks of future flooding, you should first contact the local Flood Action Group or Community Resilience Group where there is one. You can also find advice on the North West’s dedicated flood advice website: https://thefloodhub.co.uk/.
