WHO WE ARE

WE ARE SHIPSTON AREA FLOOD ACTION GROUP

VISION

A Stour River and Shipston area combined natural flood management scheme which safely channels excess surface water in time of heavy and persistent rain.

MISSION

To reduce the risk of flooding in all local communities by implementing and maintaining a comprehensive range of Natural Flood Management measures.

SCOPE

187 sq. km – Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire – 4 major sub-catchments – 36 watercourses

HISTORY

SAFAG was formed in February 2014 as part of a National Flood Forum (NFF) Pathfinder Programme. Many members were flood victims and also retired former business people. SAFAG met with the key agencies, County, District, Town, and Parish Councils, Highways and Water Authorities, and the Environment Agency, on a quarterly basis.

We identified that the necessity to find a way of restricting the peak River Stour level to 3.4 metres, and looked at a range of potential strategies to achieve this goal.

By 2016, we had established that our best chance of success was to implement Natural Flood Management (NFM) measures across the entire 187 square kilometre Stour catchment area, and set ourselves a target of achieving this by the end of 2021.

With funding from the Environment Agency and expertise from Coventry University’s Hydrology department we were able to launch a 4-year implementation programme in 2017, starting in the upper reaches of the western half of the catchment.

By the end of 2019 SAFAG had installed over 400 natural flood management measures – 350 of these interventions are leaky wooden dams, with the remainder being bunds, online and offline ponds, swales, silt traps and forested water retention areas.

2020 is another positive year with hundreds more NFM interventions being installed in the remaining catchment areas, and we are on track to achieve all our objectives by the end of the year.

SAFAG is now a recognised, constituted volunteer group with representatives from 9 neighbouring communities and strong relationships with the various agencies involved in flood management. Over the last four years we have gained the support of dozens of landowners and farmers for our plans.

THE SAFAG TEAM

Chairman – Phil Wragg
Project Management – Geoff Smith
Operations Management – Mike McCarthy
Treasurer – Brian Cooper
Public Relations – Len Grey
Secretary – Sally Ward

COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES

Shipston – Phil Wragg, John Dinnie, Peter Deans
Long Compton – Lindsay Forbes, Janet Blackwell, Diana Richardson
Brailes – Mick Fidoe, Maggie Goren
Tredington – Mike McCarthy, Sally Ward
Newbold – Len Grey
Alderminster – Dave Benton, Geoff Smith
Stretton – Dave Passingham
Sutton Under Brailes – Pat Jackson and George Kingston
Darlingscote – John Pearson
Cherington/Stourton – Richard Stevens.