The Thames Valley Flood Scheme (TVFS) is major project for the Environment Agency.
The scheme “…is looking at a catchment wide approach to managing the risk of river flooding. It aims to complement existing schemes as well as supporting communities and businesses, in places where it hasn’t been possible to deliver a local scheme.”
The River Thames runs through Reading and Caversham and, like many river-side towns, ours is at risk from flooding. The development of the TVFS will be important to watch. Hopefully, through the scheme we will see catchment-scale improvements, which will help to reduce some flood risk for us. We will still need to be prepared locally though.
- Individual households and businesses need to be aware of their flood risk, and potentially sign up for flood warnings.
- As a town we need to consider opportunities to improve the resilience of our communities.
Helping to understand the risk
The consultation material the we created is very relevant for the people of Reading. The consultation closed in August 2021 but it is still online here: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/thames/tvfs-home/. The following three videos are particularly important:
