The Pednormead End project

The scheme is located in the Pednormead End community in Chesham. The scheme has 2 objectives:

  • reduce the risk of localised flooding
  • ensure the local culvert remains safe and does not deteriorate

We're committed to managing flood risk and the proactive maintenance of our structure. This is one of several flood risk management projects.

Background

In 2015, Atkins (a consultancy group) investigated flood management options for Pednormead End. We used their findings to develop this project.

The investigation showed that over 100 homes are susceptible to potential flooding in Pednormead End, Chesham.

Previous (and possible future) flooding in this area is caused by:

  • excessive surface water
  • water rising over the top of the banks on the River Chess (caused by heavy rain)
  • rising groundwater

Flooding at Pednormead End has occurred for over 100 years. The most extensive flooding happened in 1918, but more recent flooding happened in 2001, 2006 and 2014.

Property Flood Resilience (PFR) packages

The Property Flood Resilience (PFR) packages provide property owners with practical and cost-effective measures which reduce the amount of water entering buildings.

PFR help to reduce flood risk by identifying:

  • products which are appropriate for the type of flooding experienced
  • requirements and constraints of the property itself
  • the needs of home and business owners

There is a range of measures which can be used to limit water entry including:

  • barriers on windows and doors
  • use of non-return vales to prevent backing-up of floodwaters
  • automatically closing airbricks and pump systems

We carried out a number of webinars in 2021. You can view our virtual event question and answer session summary.

Update - January 2025

We will soon install barriers outside the Queen’s Head public house on the junction of Pednormead End and Church Street. This will be a temporary measure to prevent vehicles parking on the footpath. Bollards previously in place have been damaged over the years and a suitable permanent alternative is being assessed. We will have a single overnight closure in place in February 2025 for our operatives to complete this work.

Later in the spring we will have several nights where our operatives will be working in the area using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to explore and identify any issues that need fixing.

We appreciate local frustrations with the duration of the scheme at Pednormead End. During this time, as well as working on design alternatives for this scheme, we have completed a number of other flood alleviation measures, both in Chesham and across Buckinghamshire. Our mitigation measures have helped to reduce the risk of flooding for local properties. We are currently reviewing the full impact of these additional measures to inform works on the culvert. Our first priority is the safety of the local community; however, we are reviewing proposed works to minimise disruption for nearby residents, businesses, and other affected stakeholders.

The flooding model review, incorporating the impact of recent schemes and to the latest standards, is currently underway and further updates will be made available through this page in due course. We will ensure that nearby residents and affected parties are kept up to date. Significant updates will be included in the Highways Highlight report, please sign up to be added to our newsletter here: Highways Highlight Subscribe | Buckinghamshire Council.

Previous works

You can see previous updates and details on plans for our work at Pednormead in the list below.

Contact

If you have any questions about the Pednormead End Culvert replacement, or would like to enquire about how to participate in the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) packages, make contact with us.

Email: [email protected]