Policy paper: York 5 year flood plan

This document was published in November 2016. The York 5 year flood plan is continuously being developed. For more up-to-date information please click here.

After the floods in December 2015, the government committed £45 million to reduce the risk of flooding and increase the level of protection to at least 2,000 homes in York’s city centre over the next five years.

Since the announcement of the additional funding, we have assessed what changes could be made to the existing flood defences within the city and what new defences could be built. The results of this have been summarised within this plan.

We will use this plan to guide our work in the city over the next 5 years. The options we are presenting in this plan are based on our ambition to achieve a consistent standard of flood protection across the city.

This plan outlines the work across 10 York communities over the next 5 years. It looks at a range of potential flood reduction measures including:

• creating storage areas
• increasing pumping capacity
• raising and building new walls
• raising land
• building embankments

The plan also updates the £17 million improvement project that is currently under way at the Foss Barrier.

A public exhibition was held in York in November 2016 for residents and businesses to discuss the options set out in the plan.