Banbury

• Banbury Flood Management Scheme


  An innovative project completed in 2012 to construct a flood storage reservoir north of the town at an investment of £18.5 million
• Banbury is a historic market town located in Oxfordshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Cherwell (a tributary of the River Thames), near the northeastern edge of the Cotswolds
• Banbury has been affected by flooding of the River Cherwell numerous times, with the 1998 flood leading to the closure of the railway station and causing £12.5 million in damage, and further flooding in 2007
• Banbury Flood Management Strategy

  1. Building a 3-kilometre-long and 4.5-metre-high embankment, paralleling the M40 motorway, to form a 3 million cubic meters storage basin

  2. Regulating the flow of surplus rainwater into the river, using specially engineered outlets to discharge the water slowly

  3. Accumulating surplus water in the storage reservoir during heavy rainfall, then gradually releasing it into the River Cherwell over the following days to mitigate sudden influx and potential flooding
• Key features of the scheme

  • Raising the A361
  • Constructing a floodwall around motorsport company Prodrive
  • Constructing new pumping stations to transfer water
  • Controlling the flow of the River Cherwell through the Hardwick and Huscote flow control structures
  • Creating a biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitat with ponds, trees and hedgerows
  • Constructing 4.5m high embankments using soil taken from the borrow area, which is now a small reservoir used for storing water
• The cost of the scheme was £18.5 million, but the benefits are estimated at over £100 million, with 441 houses and 73 commercial properties protected from flooding
• Around 100,000 tonnes of earth were required to make the embankment, resulting in some habitat destruction, but the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) has resulted in planting trees and hedgerows and constructing ponds, creating new habitats
• Part of the floodplain will be left to flood if river levels get too high, and the reservoir provides a temporary habitat for waterbirds, but the concrete apertures are unnatural in the landscape