To help reduce the risk of flooding and the damage it can cause, we have guidance to help householders, landowners and prospective developers.
Flooding advice for the public (PDF Document, 5.3 Mb)
Advice if you witness flooding
Flooding from sewers
Contact Severn Trent Water online or call 0800 783 4444. To assist them please have your postcode ready and record the incident number given to you. This may enable you to track your enquiry.
Flooding on roads
Contact Leicestershire County Council Highways online or on 0116 3050001. The problem may be drainage related or influenced by the capacity of Severn Trent Water Limited’s sewers serving the highway drains.
Flooding from main rivers
(e.g. Trent, Soar, Mease, Sence and others)
Contact the Environment Agency Floodline. Warnings of flooding from main rivers can be provided by email or text message by registering with the Environment Agency using the floodline number 0845 988 1188.
Flooding from ordinary rivers or streams
It is the riparian owners' (i.e. the landowners) responsibility to make sure that a watercourse is not obstructed. If you live on the edge of any watercourse you have a responsibility to ensure that it does not become obstructed.
Is your home at risk of flooding?
To find out if you are at risk of flooding from main rivers and streams, using your postcode or address you can view maps on the Environment Agency website.
Leicestershire County Council as the Lead Local Flood Authority is interested in recording all reports of flooding in order to identify any patterns emerging.
Report flooding issues to Leicestershire County Council online or call 0116 3050001.
Protecting your home from flooding
It is your responsibility to protect your home in the first instance.
If you think that your home is at risk of flooding and believe you need to protect your home with sandbags, it is a good idea to buy some from DIY outlets ready to use in case of a flood.
Remember though, sandbags are only a short term fix and may not be appropriate or effective in some flood risk circumstances.
Gel bags kept with parish councils
We are working with parish councils to ensure that some gel bags are available in that local area for emergency flooding. Check if your local parish council is participating in this scheme.
NWLDC supply of sandbags
We keep a limited number of sandbags to help protect houses and critical council infrastructure. We do not supply sandbags to protect other property such as gardens/ garages/ outbuildings.
We keep these sandbags for homeowners to collect at our Linden Way depot off Ashby Road in Coalville (postcode LE67 3JY) - between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays and weekends).
Please contact Customer Services by emailing customer.services@nwleicestershire.gov.uk, providing your name address and contact number, or call us on 01530 454545 to make arrangements for collection of sandbags. Customer Services are open between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday (except on Thursday when we close at 4pm). Our out of hours number is 01530 833 373.
Holding the sandbags at our council site allows us to triage our sandbags using our limited staffing resources to those that are either most vulnerable or at the highest risk of flood waters entering their property at any given time – based on local intelligence and advice from partners such as the Environment Agency and the Met Office.
Periods of heavy rain will usually lead to flood warnings at numerous locations in the district at any one time. Asking residents to collect sandbags from us allows us to be responsive to a wider need rather than focusing our attention on just one or two locations.
In exceptional circumstances we can deliver sandbags to locations at imminent risk of flooding.
Last updated: Mon 18 September, 2023 @ 13:11