As we were extremely concerned that Hillingdon Council was not maintaining the water levels as advised and agreed with their own engineers and the Environment Agency, we put in a Freedom of Information request. The reply is published in full here http://lidoflood.weebly.com/
Flood Risk Assessment Hillingdon Council has commissioned a Flood Risk Assessment report from consultants Halcrow to support their proposals and this has been referred to the Environment Agency for consultation. A Freedom of Information Request for this report has been made to the Council which has been refused on the grounds that the report is an ongoing piece of work and that the public interest in not disclosing the report is greater than the public interest in disclosing it!
Which properties were flooded in 1977 and 1988? A Freedom of Information request was also made in September 2010 to the Environment Agency requesting a map of the area downstream of the Lido which flooded in 1988. In November 2010 the Environment Agency replied that they did not hold any information on what properties were flooded in this area.
The London Borough of Hillingdon Strategic Flood Risk Assessment Report 2008 contains the following: "Hillingdon does not keep records of flooding occurrences from any sources whether it is pluvial (rainwater), fluvial, surface water or groundwater. The Environment Agency recommends that for future revisions of this report the London Borough of Hillingdon keep records of flooding occurrences to identify in greater detail areas at risk from flooding and in particular critical drainage problems.”
We asked if Hillingdon Council was now keeping such records, and if they knew which properties were affected by the 1977 and 1988 floods. The answers to both questions is no.
It seems that neither the Council nor the Environment Agency is actually aware of which properties were flooded in 1977 and 1988, and yet these two organisations are considering proposals to raise the water level of the Lido.