Our duties as the Lead Local Flood Authority

Use this page to find out about our responsibilities, duties and powers as the Lead Local Flood Authority for Bath and North East Somerset.

Our flood risk responsibilities

As the Lead Local Flood Authority for the area, we are responsible for managing flood risk from:

• surface water and flash flooding
• groundwater
• ordinary watercourses, such as small rivers, streams, brooks and ditches

You can read more about the different types of flooding on our flood risk management and types of flooding page.

Lead Local Flood Authority duties

We have several duties that we fulfil as the Lead Local Flood Authority:

• investigating flooding incidents
• developing, maintaining and applying a Local Flood Risk Management Strategy
• co-operating with flood risk management authorities, such as the Environment Agency
• maintaining a flood risk asset register
• ensuring ordinary watercourses are free of blockages
• granting consent for third-party works on ordinary watercourses
• ensuring new developments do not increase local flood risk
• acting as a statutory consultee for surface water drainage proposals on major planning applications
• acting consistently with national flood and coastal erosion management strategies

Lead Local Flood Authority powers:

To fulfil these duties, we have the powers to do the following:

• undertaking works to manage flood risks from surface runoff and groundwater
• designating structures and features that affect flooding
• requesting information from any person about flood and coastal erosion
• sanctioning people who do not provide information following a request
• taking enforcement action where works on ordinary watercourses have been completed without our consent
• taking enforcement action to maintain a proper flow of water on ordinary watercourses

Select a topic below to find out more about our work:

Flooding investigations

We have a duty to record and investigate significant flooding events.

We consider any of the following flooding incidents as significant:

• five or more dwellings with internal property flooding in a town or city
• two or more dwellings with internal property flooding in a rural location 
• an incident where someone died
• an incident where power, electricity, pump stations or critical transport routes were affected for a significant period of time

Our investigation will determine which Risk Management Authority is responsible for the flooding incident.

The relevant Authority will then prepare a report which details the cause and impact of the flooding, and actions to deal with the incident during and after the event.

The report will also include recommendations for future flood risk management actions. You can request a report within three months of an incident.

If your property has been flooded, you can report this to us

Maintaining our flood risk asset register

We maintain a Flood Risk Asset Register which details features or structures which could affect flood risk.

Relevant features can be natural or man-made, and include:

• drainage ditches
• highway drainage features
• embankments
• culverts

View the flood risk asset register

Watercourse maintenance

Our Drainage and Flooding team regularly maintains watercourses such as small rivers, streams and brooks.

There are 37 parts of these watercourses which we maintain every year to clear blockages and ensure the free flow of water.

We also maintain and clear trash screens when needed, to reduce the risk of blockages.

Land drainage schemes

Our Drainage and Flooding team has a rolling programme of land drainage improvement works.

The works help to reduce the risk of flooding to infrastructure and property.

Ensuring new developments do not increase local flood risk

We are a statutory consultee for all major planning applications. Our Drainage and Flooding team reviews all major planning applications, and also reviews all minor applications that are located in areas at risk of local flooding.

Read more about flood planning and development.