Environment Agency Floodline Letters

Last February many households in Burton Joyce received a letter from the Environment Agency Floodline saying that their property was at risk of flooding and advising people to register with the EA Floodline.  This letter mystified many of us whose houses were not at flood risk according to the EA’s own flooding map.  Umbrage was taken in some households that the letter was addressed to the woman of the house, rather than the male!
At last a response, explanation and apology has arrived.  The essence is that the EA’s flood-plain map defines which houses are at flood risk – see this map in the library entrance – but the warning letter was confusingly sent to a wider range of people
Extract from the response:
“… your property is located in an area that is close to a natural floodplain for the River Trent but not actually located within the floodplain…. This is reflected on the Flood Map on our website and in the information we provide to insurers.
In previous years we have only contacted people at high risk of flooding but with our current mailshot we have contacted people who live close by to the floodplain… I would like to apologise for any confusion our mailing may have caused with respect to the flood risk to your property.  … We will ensure that any future mailings to property located close to the floodplain get a different mailing explaining why they are being contacted rather than the generic mailing which you received...  I would like to reassure you that our mailing will not affect your insurance…”
It has taken a very large number of phone calls, internet searches, letters and e-mails over seven months to get this response from the EA.  Persistence is something BJRA is good at but why should we have to do this in order to get a response to a simple inquiry?
Residents who have tried to take up this issue must have been as infuriated as we were to notice that the Floodline letters were sent without any address or contact telephone number apart from the Floodline Registration Number which took us to a Belfast call-centre, where staff were unable to answer queries.  You may therefore find the following contact details helpful:
Contact: Katie Slater, Campaigns Officer
Address: Rio House, Waterside Drive, Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol BS32 4UD
Customer services line: 08708 506 506