A team from the Flood Innovation Centre will visit Hessle in East Yorkshire on Thursday 2 March to hold an informal drop-in session for local business owners who are interested in receiving a FREE flood survey and follow-up support to make their premises more resilient to flooding.
With the kind permission of Hessle Town Council, the team will be based at Hessle Town Hall between 10am and 2pm, when local business owners, as well as representatives of charities and community groups, are encouraged to pop in for an informal chat with them.
Hull and parts of the East Riding were badly affected by flooding in 2007, when heavy rainfall overwhelmed local drainage systems. Staff at the Flood Innovation Centre were particularly keen to visit the Hessle area to raise awareness of the fully funded support that’s on offer to businesses and charities. As well as offering free flood surveys, they can help eligible organisations to understand the findings of their survey and support them to make changes aimed at making their premises more resilient to flooding.
Project Manager Anton James said: “Climate change, coupled with increasing urbanisation, means that flood events are happening more frequently. Our role is to work with eligible businesses and charities to help them ensure that their premises, employees, stock and other assets are better protected from the risk of flooding.”
Chun Keat Yew, also a Project Manager, explained: “Thankfully, by taking a few simple steps to protect their premises, businesses can give themselves a fighting chance of surviving future flooding events. In fact, every £1 spent on property flood resilience measures can save businesses around £5 in flood damage.”
Property flood resilience is a term used to describe measures that reduce the risk of flood damage to properties, speed up the recovery process and enable people to get back into their properties quicker after flooding. These measures are installed in business premises, as well as people’s homes, to make them less vulnerable to flooding. Property flood resilience solutions are bespoke to each property; the aim is to identify the measures that are most appropriate for your premises and the type of flooding you face.
The Environment Agency estimates that the average cost of damage suffered by businesses during a flood event is around £82,000. As many as 40 per cent of businesses never reopen after being flooded, and a further 25 per cent of businesses that do reopen go on to fail within a year.
Part of the University of Hull, the Flood Innovation Centre is funded to provide support to eligible Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in several areas of the country, including Hull and East Yorkshire. However, eligible businesses are rapidly running out of time to take advantage of the funding that’s on offer because it comes from European Regional Development Fund and is only available for a few more months.
Business owners in the Hessle area, as well as representatives of charities and community groups, are encouraged to pop in to the Town Hall on South Lane, Hessle on Thursday 2 March, between 10am and 2pm. Alternatively, contact the Flood Innovation Centre by telephoning 01482 462275, emailing flic@hull.ac.uk or completing an online registration form at www.floodinnovation.co.uk/register.