Great Ayton is a small village in North Yorkshire.
We have been working in partnership with the local community to fund and deliver flood solutions that work for them, including property protection measures.
Why is Great Ayton at risk of flooding?
Great Ayton sits along the River Leven at the foot of the Cleveland Hills. The River Leven rises on the northern slopes of the North York Moors where water rapidly runs off from the hills. This results in a short response time for potential flooding in the village.
Great Ayton has a long history of flooding and was badly affected in 2000 when more than 70 homes and buildings were flooded. Since then the community have also had a number of close calls.
This is a local levy scheme to reduce flooding at properties.
What are we and others doing to reduce the risk of flooding?
We have worked closely with the local community so that they are as prepared as possible for flooding.
We have also worked with the parish council to reduce the risk of flooding in the village. We set up a partnership agreement with the parish council to enable them to project manage the delivery of individual property level protection in the village.
Delivering this project involved individual home owners committing to fund two-thirds of the property protection measures. Working in partnership with the parish council meant that they were able to facilitate this for us and gain a high take up from residents. The final third was funding by our local levy fund.
In 2012 protection measures were successfully installed in 22 properties in the village. This is a mix of homes, community buildings and businesses.
In addition to this property level protection scheme, we have also used a number of natural techniques to ‘slow down’ the River Leven. We have worked in partnership with the North York Moors National Park Authority and a team of apprentices to install a number of features upstream of the area including, a natural woven willow barrier which acts as a “leaky dam” during heavy rainfall. This and other the storage measures are proving successful and have worked well recently.
Next steps
We are continuing to work with the North York Moors National Park Authority and the apprentices to identify and install further natural flood management measures in the catchment.
Who to contact for more information
If you would like more information about this work please email us.
