Flood Alert declared by Environment Agency, 21 January 2021

 

Latest Environment Agency Flood Alert status and forecast for Cookham:

https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/target-area/061WAF23Hurley

For more information see 'Flood Alerts and Warnings' post below.

The Jubilee River can been operated to alleviate flows in Cookham, but has reduced capacity at the moment due to damage to the grout mattresses on the river bed.  There is further information in the 'Jubilee River repairs' post below.

To see the latest river levels, scroll down to the 'River level' post below.

To report flooding in our area, or to contact our local Environment Agency Duty Officer, call the Incident Communication Service on 0845 850 3518.

 With thanks to Mandy Brar for the photo.

Jubilee River repairs

The Jubilee River was built to reduce the risk of flooding from the River Thames to over 3,000 properties in Maidenhead, Windsor, Eton and Cookham. It will not be fully operational for several weeks from 9 October 2020 while emergency repairs are carried out by the Environment Agency (EA) to Black Potts Weir. 

The repairs require a team of divers and a pontoon supporting two cranes.  The 'grout mattresses' underwater in the walls of the river need to be repaired and covered in sheet piling.  In addition, this needs to be protected with huge boulders called rock armour.  It's a big job! Phase 1 was complected in December 2020, and this enabled partial use of the Jubilee River (up to gate movement 2) to divert flood water during the flood alert 24 December 2020 -  4 January 2021. More work is needed in early 2021 to complete the emergency repairs.

 If you haven't done so already, it's a good time to signup for early warnings of flooding with the EA Floodline Warnings online or on 0345 988 1188.

 

EA December 2020 briefing

 

 

EA November 2020 briefing

 

 

 

EA October 2020 briefing

 

 

Flood Alerts and Warnings

Flood Alerts and Flood Warnings for four areas relevant to Cookham are issued by the Environment Agency and published on the gov.uk Flood Information Service , as well as via the telephone, text and email flood warning service.

When things first start to look dicey, the Environment Agency will declare a Flood Alert for the 'River Thames from Hurley to Cookham'. This area includes Cookham village, East Cookham Rise, the parts of Cookham Dean down by the river, Spade Oak Reach and Cock Marsh. 'Flood Alert' is the lowest level of warning and indicates "Flooding is possible. Be prepared." If things get worse, the EA will declare Flood Warnings for smaller parts of the Hurley to Cookham stretch of the Thames. Most of Cookham is covered by an area named 'Cookham village and east Cookham Rise', which includes Marsh Meadow, Cookham Moor and Widbrook Common. For people concerned about Spade Oak Reach and Cock Marsh, the appropriate EA Flood Warning area is the River Thames at 'Bourne End'. For the parts of Cookham Dean down by the river, the Flood Warning information is given in the area the EA call 'River Thames at Marlow and Bisham'.

The EA map of our Flood Warning areas shows which parts of Cookham fall into each area (pdf 2.9MB), with kind permission of EA Partnership & Strategic Overview team, Berks and Bucks, 14 September 2015). 

Surface water flooding in Cookham

Weather forecast data interpolated geographically to a point in Cookham.

River level

gov.uk publishes a live map of English and Welsh river levels. Or for a different presentation go to the gaugemap site.

Live hourly updates of the Environment Agency river gauge at Cookham Lock (upstream) should be displayed by the widget below.

1.46m - highest level in these records (January 2003)..... 1.36m - 2014 maximum level reached on on 10 February, Cookham village cut off by road..... 1.24m - in 2014 the water on Spade Oak Reach road was too deep for cars when the river reached this level.....1.22m - at about ths level the sewage pumping station at Lightlands Lane stops working due to flooded electrics...1.18m  - at this level Sutton Road at Widbrook Common flooded in 2014..... 1.12m  - when the river rose this high in 2014 the A4094 north of Cookham bridge flooded...... 1.00m is the level when the Moor Road (B4447 west of Cookham High Street) started to flood in 2013 and in 2014, number 37 bus stops running..... 0.60m - the normal range at Cookham Lock is 0 to 0.60m, flooding is possible above 0.60m.

The Environment Agency also publishes river conditions for boaters along the whole River Thames.

Weather forecast relevant to flooding of the Thames

Why show a weather forecast for Oxford instead of Cookham? Flooding in Cookham is determined by the rainfall in the upstream catchment of the River Thames.  Oxford is roughly in the middle of the upstream catchment and so the rainfall forecast there is a better indicator of future flooding than a more local site. It takes a couple of days for rain running into the Thames at Oxford to flow down the river to Cookham.

Telephone numbers

Environment Agency Floodline. Call Floodline on  0345 988 1188, select option 1 and enter Quickdial number 173199 to get more information about current flood warnings, river levels and the forecast for Cookham.

To report flooding in our area, or to contact the local Environment Agency Duty Officer, call the EA's Incident Hotline on 0845 850 3518 or  0800 80 70 60.

Environment Agency Customer Service Line 03708 506 506.

Thames Water 24hr customer care 0800 316 9800.

Contact the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead during normal office hours on 01628 683800. Outside normal office hours, call the emergency RBWM contact number 01753 853517.

Joint Emergency Planning Unit for West Berkshire Council, Bracknell Forest and Windsor & Maidenhead Council can be emailed via EmergencyPlanning@westberks.gov.uk. The telephone number for their Emergency Planning Duty Officer is 01635 503535.