The Huntingdon racecourse and hotel are on the floodplain of the Alconbury Brook and prone regular floods. Access to the site and facilities is jeopardised.

A plan to raise the access road was strongly opposed by the Environment Agency (EA) because they believed the development would have a significant negative impact on flood flows.

Time for WHS

We needed to prove that the plan would work and liaise with the EA to win consent.

We developed a methodology to construct a 1D/2D model of the floodplain showing the impact of raising the access road. We agreed this first in detailed technical discussions with the EA.

To model the very flat and expansive floodplain cost-effectively, we devised a staged approach, enabling us to model it in discrete portions.

Our modelling showed that the access road improvements would not result in any negative impact on property. In fact, we showed that there would be a positive impact – a marginal decrease in flows towards Huntingdon because of increased flood storage in the floodplain.

We kept in touch with the EA at every stage to ensure they agreed with our approach and outcomes.

Result: the access road improvements got the go-ahead.

The last word from our clients

“WHS acted for us as flood risk consultants. They were professional, efficient and personable throughout and were instrumental in a successful solution to the issues faced.“
Director, HPLP