Major Natural Flood Management proposal submitted for the Upper Evenlode
A major proposal to deliver and better understand the impact of Natural Flood Management (NFM) at landscape scale across the Upper Evenlode has been submitted to the Environment Agency.
The Cluster, with its Evenlode Landscape Recovery project, and in collaboration with the Evenlode Catchment Partnership, has submitted an Expression of Interest to the Environment Agency's Landscape Scale Natural Flood Management programme.
The proposal builds on work already underway across the catchment, with the ambition of delivering more Natural Flood Management on the ground while building a clearer picture of the difference it can make when delivered at scale.
Working with the landscape to manage water
Natural Flood Management works with natural processes to slow and temporarily store water within the landscape, helping to reduce the speed at which water reaches rivers and communities downstream.
Measures can include reconnecting rivers with their floodplains, creating wetlands and temporary water storage, planting trees and woodland, introducing leaky barriers and slowing the movement of water across the land.
The Upper Evenlode proposal would extend NFM work already underway in the catchment, with a particular focus on the Bledington, Westcote and Littlestock Brook sub-catchments. This includes several years of work and monitoring on the Littlestock Brook, delivered by the Evenlode Catchment Partnership with the Environment Agency and local partners. New and existing interventions would be combined with monitoring and modelling to better understand their effects further downstream.
Flooding is a very real issue for communities in this part of the catchment. Bledington has experienced repeated flooding over the past two decades, while communities further downstream in the Wychwoods have also been affected, including during Storm Bert in 2024.
A collaborative approach
The proposal brings together farmers and landowners with a wide range of expertise across flood management, nature recovery and research, and has been developed with support from Great Yellow and a wider group of technical and delivery partners.
It has also received support from organisations and representatives across the catchment, including Charlie Maynard MP for Witney and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP for North Cotswolds, who have both written to the Environment Agency in support of the application.
In his letter, Charlie Maynard highlighted the repeated flooding experienced by communities in the Wychwoods, as well as the potential for nature-based approaches to help reduce flood risk. He also pointed to the strength of the existing farmer and landowner network behind the proposal, with the North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster bringing together more than 200 farmers and landowners across 60,000 hectares.
Sir Geoffrey similarly highlighted the long-standing flood risk faced by communities in the Upper Evenlode, particularly Bledington, and the value of bringing together local land managers, existing plans and established relationships.
Both letters also recognise the wider value of generating evidence about how NFM performs at catchment scale and sharing that learning more widely.
What happens next?
The Expression of Interest has now been submitted to the Environment Agency and will go through its assessment process over the coming months.
For the North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster and its partners, the proposal represents an opportunity to build on work already happening across the Evenlode, taking Natural Flood Management to a greater scale while developing a stronger evidence base for what it can achieve for communities, rivers and the wider landscape.
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