Flooding: Preventing flood damage

Preventing Flood Damage

A third of cricket clubs in England and Wales are at risk of flooding but there is a lot that a cricket club can do to reduce the risk and costs of flood damage.

With climate change and our changing built environment, the risk of flooding are likely to increase – so the time to start taking action to become more flood resilient is now.

If you are flooding right now – see government advice:

In England: https://www.gov.uk/help-during-flood

In Wales: https://naturalresources.wales/flooding/what-to-do-in-a-flood/

Find out if your club is at risk of flooding

Start by finding out if your club is at risk of flooding, you can do that here:

In England: The Environment Agency – Flood Risk – Find out whether your ground is at risk of flooding.

In Wales: Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales – Find out whether your ground is at risk of flooding

Build a flood plan

If your club is at risk of flooding, there is lots you can do to help protect assets like your buildings and equipment.

Start by building your flood plan – this is plan of what protection measures you will need, when you will put them in place and who is responsible for taking action.  This will include actions at the end of the season and actions in response to a flood warning.

Sport England have provided guidance on how to do this:

How to Plan Ahead
Developing a Club Flood Plan
Club Flood Plan template (Clicking on link downloads a document)

Note: if you are in Wales, the Sport England Guidance will help but you will need to use online tools from Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales.

Be more flood resilient

Designing new buildings to be flood resilient is essential but you can adapt existing buildings to be more flood resilient too, to find out how to do this see:

Sport England: Flood Resilient Design
In England: Environment Agency – Prepare for flooding
In Wales: Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales – Preparing for a flood
The Blue Pages – an independent directory of flood protection products and services

We are here to help

The ECB funds Flood Resilience projects through its County Grants Fund and Interest Free Loan Scheme– to find out more about what is funded and eligibility visit: https://www.ecb.co.uk/play/club-support/club-funding