A COMMUNICATION plan is to be created to ensure residents in the Buckskin area of Basingstoke are aware of extreme weather warnings in the future.

As previously reported by The Gazette, a multi-agency group was formed to investigate the devastating floods that forced 87 homes to be evacuated in February, and to work together to ensure the area is prepared for any future flooding incident.

The group, which brings together representatives of agencies including Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Hampshire County Council, Scottish and Southern Energy, Thames Water and the Environment Agency, have now met to discuss the progress that has been made since the incident.

The key theme at the meeting was the importance of having residents at the centre of communications. As a result, all agencies have agreed to work with a residents’ association, set up after the crisis, to ensure that all residents are made aware of progress being made and flooding alerts that are put in place in the area.

Another important development included plans from Scottish and Southern Energy to relocate a vital electric substation which was in danger of being flooded during the bad weather in February.

The energy supplier is currently working with the borough council on potential locations to move the sub-station, in Worting Road, Basingstoke, to ensure it is less susceptible to flooding in the future.

SSE will report back to the multi-agency group when a location has been found.

Other actions that were agreed at the meeting include increased gully clearances by Hampshire County Council’s highways department and increased monitoring of manholes and pipes by the Environment Agency and Thames Water over the coming months.

Cllr Stephen Reid, chairman of the meeting and Hampshire county councillor for Basingstoke North West, told The Gazette: “I think we are at a transition stage now. We will be looking at an action plan and communication plan.

“The first task was to make sure the infrastructure is working as well as it can and the next stage is to look at things we can do to improve the situation.

“When we get on to the community action plan, the residents become key to it, and we want to set up some form of communication system where residents spread the word about what’s going on rather than let it be run by the rumour mill.”

Councillor Nigel Pierce, Labour councillor for Buckskin, told The Gazette: “There was a commitment around the table to do everything that was possible.

“It all seems to be going in the right direction and I asked if there were any plans at all to knock it down (the flooded areas of Buckskin) and start again, and Stephen Reid said absolutely not.

“I thought it was a positive meeting and I think we are getting towards a more relaxed point because people were not sleeping, and if it rains, they are not paranoid but they are very affected by it.”