Flood Risk Assessment in Hampton Bishop

Hampton Bishop sits on a narrow tongue of land where the River Wye and the River Lugg meet, three miles south-east of Hereford, and the village has spent decades learning to live with both rivers at once. We prepare flood risk assessments in Hampton Bishop for planning, property purchase, mortgage and insurance, and BREEAM, alongside sequential and exception tests and surface-water drainage strategies (SuDS), for sites across the parish and the surrounding Wye and Lugg floodplain.

Speak to one of our experienced flood risk consultants on 01293 214444 or enquiries@unda.co.uk, or start a quote below — we reply to every enquiry within 60 minutes.

In February 2020 the Wye and the Lugg both reached their highest recorded levels within the same 48 hours, flooding around 48 properties in Hampton Bishop — and this remains a village that floods, in some form, almost every time either river peaks.

Flood risk assessment in Hampton Bishop at a glance

Hampton Bishop's flood risk is set by its position between two rivers rather than by any single watercourse, which is what makes a generic, one-river assessment the wrong starting point here.

• Two rivers, one village. Hampton Bishop sits close to where the River Lugg discharges into the River Wye near Mordiford, three miles south-east of Hereford.
• Mostly Flood Zone 3. The Hampton Bishop Neighbourhood Development Plan records that a large part of the parish lies within the floodplain, with only small pockets of land in Flood Zone 1.
• Two named EA flood warning areas. The Environment Agency runs separate warning areas for the River Wye at Hampton Bishop and the River Lugg at Hampton Bishop, reflecting how either river can flood the village on its own.
• A recorded flood history back to at least 1960. Including the 2007 evacuation and the record-breaking floods of February 2020, set out in the history below.
• Herefordshire Council is the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) for the parish, responsible for surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses alongside the Environment Agency's river remit.
• Every situation covered. We prepare flood risk assessments and drainage strategies for planning, property purchase, mortgage and insurance, and BREEAM, wherever a site sits within Hampton Bishop and the wider Herefordshire floodplain.

Check flood risk at your Hampton Bishop site

Hampton Bishop parish is outlined below. Enter any postcode in or around the village to see the Environment Agency's modelled flood risk for that location — rivers and sea, surface water, reservoirs and the planning flood zones — plus live flood warnings and the 2070–2125 climate change outlook.

Why Hampton Bishop floods: caught between the Wye and the Lugg

Hampton Bishop occupies a wedge of low-lying land close to where the River Lugg flows into the River Wye near Mordiford Bridge, with the River Frome feeding the Lugg a little further upstream. That confluence position, not just proximity to one river, is what makes the village so exposed.

• A backwater effect, not just two floods. When the Wye is already running high, the Lugg cannot discharge into it fast enough at Mordiford Bridge and backs up across the fields and low-lying parts of Hampton Bishop instead — so the village can flood even where the Lugg itself has not broken its banks.
• Either river can flood the village alone. The separate River Wye at Hampton Bishop and River Lugg at Hampton Bishop flood warning areas exist precisely because the two watercourses do not always peak together.
• A large, flashy upland catchment. Both the Wye and the Lugg rise in the Welsh hills and mid-Wales uplands, so heavy rain a long way upstream can arrive at Hampton Bishop as a fast-rising flood peak, sometimes with little local warning.
• Low-lying land by design. Much of the parish sits on the Wye and Lugg floodplain rather than on higher ground, which is why groundwater and surface water, as well as the rivers themselves, all need to be considered together on most sites here.

A history of flooding in Hampton Bishop

Hampton Bishop's flood record goes back further than most of the villages we work in, and it shows a clear pattern: this is a place that has flooded, in some form, from one river or the other, in almost every decade since 1960.

Flood defences at Hampton Bishop — and their limits

Hampton Bishop is one of the few villages of its size with two separate flood embankments, yet the events of 2020 show why defences narrow the risk rather than remove it.

• A 3km River Lugg embankment, plus River Wye embankments, protect the village, built up over decades in response to repeated flooding.
• They worked, mostly, in February 2020. The Environment Agency estimates the defences protected around 150 properties that would otherwise have flooded, while roughly 48 properties flooded or were affected outside their protection.
• The Lugg embankment was overtopped and damaged in the same event, triggering a £90,000 Environment Agency repair to the embankment and the Wye defences, completed later in 2020 as part of a wider West Midlands flood-recovery programme.
• Defences reduce risk; they don't remove it. A flood risk assessment still has to consider what happens if a defence is overtopped or breached, known as residual flood risk, rather than only the scenario where the embankment holds.

Planning policy and your Lead Local Flood Authority in Hampton Bishop

Development in Hampton Bishop sits under the same national flood risk policy as anywhere else in England, applied through a council that knows this parish's history well.

• Herefordshire Council is both the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) and the local planning authority for Hampton Bishop, and consults the Environment Agency on river flood risk for sites here. Read more on what a Lead Local Flood Authority does.
• The council's Local Flood Risk Management Strategy names Hampton Bishop among the settlements with a significant history of flood disruption from the Wye and the Lugg, alongside places such as Bosbury, Eardisland and Ross-on-Wye.
• The National Planning Policy Framework and Herefordshire's Local Plan Core Strategy require development to be steered to the lowest-risk available land, with a Sequential Test, and where needed an Exception Test, applied to sites in Flood Zone 2 or 3 — see also the lessons of the Yatton judgment on how that balance is struck.
• The Hampton Bishop Neighbourhood Development Plan (made August 2019) records that only small parts of the parish lie in Flood Zone 1, and sets out residents' clear wish that new development should not make existing flooding worse.
• Herefordshire's Strategic Flood Risk Assessment identifies the Lower Wye sub-catchment, which includes Hampton Bishop, as carrying the greatest current fluvial flood risk of any part of the county.
• Riparian ownership matters here too. Many Hampton Bishop sites back onto the Wye, the Lugg or their banks, so riparian ownership rights and responsibilities often need to be addressed alongside flood risk.

What your flood risk assessment in Hampton Bishop must show

A flood risk assessment in Hampton Bishop has to reflect the way this specific village floods, not a generic single-river template.

• The Wye/Lugg backwater interaction modelled together, not each river assessed in isolation, since the two watercourses influence each other's flood levels here — often supported by dedicated flood modelling.
• Finished floor levels set with appropriate freeboard above both the undefended flood level and the level the embankments are designed to hold back, given the residual risk if a defence is overtopped.
• Safe access and egress for the development, given that roads into and out of the village have flooded and closed during past events, including the 2007 evacuation.
• Climate change allowances applied to both the Wye and the Lugg over the development's lifetime, in line with current Environment Agency guidance.
• Confirmation of the site's Flood Zone and, where relevant, a Sequential Test addressing the limited Flood Zone 1 land available within the parish.
• Groundwater considered alongside the rivers, since low-lying floodplain land like Hampton Bishop's often sits on ground where the water table rises with the rivers rather than independently of them.

Not sure what your Hampton Bishop site needs?

Three different questions come up on most Hampton Bishop sites, and they are answered by three different reports. A flood risk assessment asks whether the site is safe and whether the scheme increases flood risk elsewhere; a sequential or exception test asks whether the site is the right location at all, given the limited Flood Zone 1 land in the parish; and a surface-water drainage strategy asks where the site's runoff goes and how discharge is controlled. They often travel together in a planning submission, but they remain separate pieces of work — and where a scheme already has permission, that drainage strategy may need to progress to a detailed design to discharge a planning condition, or start life as a preliminary drainage design at the outline stage.

Flood risk assessments for every situation in Hampton Bishop

Sites in Hampton Bishop come to us for planning, for a house purchase, for a mortgage or insurance query, and for BREEAM certification, alongside the sequential, exception and drainage work that often runs alongside them.

• Planning: a flood risk assessment in Hampton Bishop to support a planning application to Herefordshire Council, addressing the Wye, the Lugg, surface water and groundwater together.
• Property purchase: an independent flood risk survey for homebuyers, their solicitors or their lenders, where a Hampton Bishop property has been flagged for flood risk during conveyancing.
• Mortgage and insurance: a property-specific flood risk assessment for insurance where a broker, underwriter or lender has raised concerns about a Hampton Bishop property.
• BREEAM: a flood risk assessment structured around BREEAM Pol 03 for developments in or near the village seeking certification.
• Drainage: a surface-water drainage strategy or SuDS design for a Hampton Bishop site, working within the same floodplain that shapes the village's wider flood risk.
• Sequential and exception tests: locational reports addressing the limited Flood Zone 1 land within the parish, prepared alongside a flood risk assessment where the site falls in Flood Zone 2 or 3.
• Free screening tools: check indicative flood risk on our Flood Risk Map, watch the Wye and the Lugg in real time on our Live River Levels Map, or check ground conditions for a soakaway and size your drainage with our Geology & Ground Conditions Checker, Drainage Calculators and BRE 365 Infiltration Rate Calculator.

Unda has completed more than 5,000 flood risk assessments across England and Wales since 2014, and our team works directly with the Environment Agency, Herefordshire Council and Natural Resources Wales on sites throughout the Wye and Lugg catchments — read more about our flood risk consultancy services, or see our specialists' work in the media.

Hampton Bishop flood risk management and emergency contacts

Several organisations share responsibility for flood risk at Hampton Bishop, and it helps to know which one covers what before you need them.

• Herefordshire Council is the Lead Local Flood Authority for Hampton Bishop, responsible for local flood risk strategy, surface water and ordinary watercourses across the county.
• The Environment Agency manages the Wye and Lugg flood defences and issues flood warnings for the village through the separate River Wye at Hampton Bishop and River Lugg at Hampton Bishop warning areas.
• The English Severn and Wye Regional Flood and Coastal Committee oversees the flood and coastal risk management programme across the Wye catchment, including Herefordshire.
• The West Mercia Local Resilience Forum coordinates the multi-agency response to major flooding incidents across Herefordshire.
• Water and sewerage across most of Herefordshire, including Hampton Bishop, is provided by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, which manages foul and surface water sewers in the area.
• Sign up for free flood warnings before they matter, and call 999 if you are in immediate danger from flooding, or 105 to report a power cut.

Flood risk assessment in Hampton Bishop: frequently asked questions