Flood Risk Assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon sits on a broad, low-lying stretch of the River Avon, and it is the town in Warwickshire that keeps coming back into the flood news. The Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre had to close its flooded basement in July 2007, and the Recreation Ground and the Avon Bowling Club went under water again in January 2024 when Storm Henk pushed the river to around 2.3 metres. Unda prepares a flood risk assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon for planning, property purchase, mortgage and insurance, and BREEAM, alongside sequential and exception tests and surface-water drainage strategies (SuDS), for sites across the town and the surrounding district.

Broad tracts of Flood Zone 2 and Flood Zone 3 run through the town centre, along Waterside, the Recreation Ground, Tiddington Road and Bridgefoot, and along the lower ground either side of Shottery Brook, so most development proposals here need to show, with proper evidence, that a site will stay safe and will not push flood risk onto a neighbour. We have prepared flood risk assessments across Warwickshire, and know the Avon, its tributaries and the planning policy that governs development on this stretch of the river well.

Stratford-upon-Avon is the most consistently flooded town on this stretch of the Avon — badly hit in July 2007 and again by Storm Henk in January 2024, with Flood Zone 2 and 3 land running through much of the town centre.

Speak to one of our experienced flood risk consultants on 01293 214444 for a free, no-obligation quote, answered within 60 minutes during working hours, or email enquiries@unda.co.uk.

Flood risk assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon at a glance

Before commissioning a survey, it helps to know how flood risk behaves here and who is responsible for managing it. The points below summarise the picture; the sections that follow set out the detail.

• Dominant risk. River (fluvial) flooding from the Avon is the leading source, with surface water and a smaller groundwater component adding to the picture on many sites.
• Main watercourses. The River Avon, a designated main river, and its tributary Shottery Brook, which drains the west of the town before joining the Avon.
• Historic peak level. 2.71 metres, recorded at the Stratford gauge on 10 April 1998 — the highest level on record for the town.
• Lead Local Flood Authority. Warwickshire County Council, with Stratford-on-Avon District Council as the local planning authority and the Environment Agency responsible for the Avon as a main river.
• Flood zone extent. Broad Flood Zone 2 and 3 land runs through the town centre, Waterside, the Recreation Ground, Tiddington Road, Avonside and the Racecourse area.

Check flood risk anywhere in Stratford-upon-Avon

Use the flood risk checker below to see how the Environment Agency's open data reads for any postcode in and around Stratford-upon-Avon. The Stratford-on-Avon district boundary is outlined in coral; enter a postcode to see the modelled risk from rivers and the sea, surface water and reservoirs, the flood zone for planning, and the climate change outlook to 2125, alongside live flood warnings.

A history of flooding in Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon's flood history is unusually well recorded, because the same stretches of the town keep reappearing in it. The River Avon at the Stratford gauge reached its highest level on record, 2.71 metres, on 10 April 1998, when the water covered part of Bancroft Gardens outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In July 2007 the river rose to 2.5 metres and stayed high for several days, flooding both banks of the Avon and Shottery Brook from Drayton Avenue through to its confluence with the river; the Swan Theatre's basement flooded and performances were cancelled. Most recently, Storm Henk pushed the Avon to around 2.3 metres in early January 2024, flooding the Recreation Ground and surrounding the Avon Bowling Club, while saturated ground caused surface water to overwhelm drains on Birmingham Road and elsewhere across the district.

The River Avon, Shottery Brook and surface water: how flood risk behaves in Stratford-upon-Avon

The dominant source of flood risk in Stratford-upon-Avon is the River Avon itself, a designated main river that carries the drainage of a large rural catchment through the middle of the town before continuing south-west towards Evesham, Tewkesbury and its confluence with the Severn. Shottery Brook, a smaller tributary, drains the west of the town and has its own history of overtopping in heavy rainfall, as it did in July 2007. Surface water is the second major source: hard ground after a dry spell, saturated ground after a wet one, and a mix of Victorian and modern drainage combine to flood roads and low points away from the river itself, as Storm Henk demonstrated in January 2024. Groundwater is a smaller but genuine factor on some sites, particularly where groundwater flooding interacts with high river levels and saturated floodplain gravels; it is a source every flood risk assessment has to consider, not a separate report in itself.

• River Avon. A designated main river; the Environment Agency's River Avon at Stratford upon Avon flood warning area covers Warwick Road, Tiddington Road, Bridgefoot, Waterside, Shipston Road, Avonside, Saffron Walk, the Racecourse area and Luddington Road.
• Shottery Brook. A tributary draining the west of the town, with a recorded history of overtopping from Drayton Avenue to its confluence with the Avon.
• Surface water. Widespread across the town and district, worsened by saturated or hard-baked ground and by pressure on the combined sewer network, particularly around Birmingham Road.
• Groundwater. A secondary but real consideration on sites near the floodplain gravels, especially where infiltration drainage is proposed.
• Flood zones. Broad Flood Zone 2 and 3 land follows the Avon through the town centre and Waterside; national flood maps give a good starting picture but need site-level checking, since they reflect the area around a postcode rather than an individual plot.

Planning policy and the Lead Local Flood Authority for Stratford-upon-Avon

Warwickshire County Council is the Lead Local Flood Authority for Stratford-upon-Avon, responsible for managing local flood risk from surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses under the county's Local Flood Risk Management Strategy. Stratford-on-Avon District Council determines planning applications and has published Strategic Flood Risk Assessments (Level 1 and Level 2) as technical evidence, produced jointly with Warwick, North Warwickshire and Rugby councils and Warwickshire County Council. That evidence now feeds the emerging South Warwickshire Local Plan, which Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick district councils are preparing jointly, and which will set the flood risk policies a development in Stratford-upon-Avon must satisfy in place of the district's older Core Strategy Policy CS.4.

Because so much of the town sits within Flood Zone 2 and 3, national planning policy and the Environment Agency will normally expect a Sequential Test, and in some cases an Exception Test, to sit alongside a site's flood risk assessment. This asks a different question to the assessment itself — not just whether a site can be made safe, but whether a lower-risk site is reasonably available instead — and recent appeal decisions such as the Yatton case show how closely inspectors now scrutinise the area of search and the alternative sites considered. We set out what a Sequential and Exception Test involves in more detail if that is new territory for a scheme.

• Lead Local Flood Authority. Warwickshire County Council — surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourse consent.
• Local planning authority. Stratford-on-Avon District Council, working towards the joint South Warwickshire Local Plan with Warwick District Council.
• Strategic Flood Risk Assessment. Level 1 and Level 2 SFRAs cover the district and inform site allocations and the sequential approach to new development.
• Sequential and Exception Tests. Routinely required for sites in Flood Zone 2 or 3, which covers much of the town centre and riverside.
• SuDS and drainage. Surface-water drainage strategies are expected for qualifying schemes, working to the SuDS hierarchy of storing, infiltrating and only then discharging to a watercourse or sewer.

Development and flood risk assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon

The largest pressure on flood risk policy locally comes from growth south-west of the town at Meon Vale and Long Marston, a former airfield site allocated for thousands of new homes, where floodplain crossings of the Avon and its tributaries are a recognised engineering constraint, and from proposed housing to the west at Shottery and Bordon Hill. Town-centre and riverside sites bring a different challenge: infill and redevelopment close to Waterside and the Recreation Ground, where existing flood defences, floor levels and the historic street pattern all have to be worked around. National reporting on new homes built in flood risk areas has specifically flagged the district's own record on this, which makes early, evidence-led flood risk work worth doing before a scheme's layout is fixed rather than after.

• Greenfield and former-airfield sites. Land such as Meon Vale/Long Marston needs its floodplain crossings, existing topography and watercourse proximity assessed from the outset, and often benefits from compensatory flood storage where floodplain volume is lost to development.
• Western urban extensions. Proposals around Shottery and Bordon Hill need a surface-water drainage strategy that keeps discharge rates within limits acceptable to the Lead Local Flood Authority.
• Town-centre and riverside infill. Sites near Waterside, Bridgefoot and the Recreation Ground sit inside Flood Zone 2 or 3 and usually need both a flood risk assessment and a Sequential Test before permission can be granted.
• Conditioned drainage schemes. Where permission already carries a drainage condition, discharging that condition requires a detailed scheme the council can approve in writing, and outline applications often benefit from preliminary drainage design at an early stage.

How Unda helps with flood risk assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon

We have prepared flood risk assessments and drainage strategies across Warwickshire and the wider Avon catchment, so we know the Avon's flood history, Shottery Brook, the district's Strategic Flood Risk Assessments and the emerging South Warwickshire Local Plan well before a project starts. Reports are written to be technically robust enough for the Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority to accept, and clear enough for a client to understand exactly what is being said about their site.

Flood risk assessments for every situation in Stratford-upon-Avon

A flood risk assessment, a Sequential or Exception Test and a drainage strategy are three distinct reports. They often travel together in a planning submission, but they answer different questions: is the site safe, should the development be here at all, and where does the surface water go. Unda prepares whichever combination a Stratford-upon-Avon site needs.

• Flood risk assessment for planning. The core report submitted with a planning application to satisfy the NPPF and Environment Agency requirements.
• Flood risk survey for property purchase. An independent, site-specific survey for homebuyers, solicitors and lenders during conveyancing.
• Flood risk assessment for insurance. Property-specific evidence when an insurer, broker or underwriter has raised concerns.
• Flood risk assessment for BREEAM. Structured to support BREEAM Pol 03 credit achievement from the outset.
• Sequential and Exception Test reports. Locational evidence required alongside an assessment for many Flood Zone 2/3 sites here.
• Surface-water drainage strategy (SuDS). How runoff from a site is managed to comply with the NPPF, the Environment Agency and local policy.
• Groundwater flood risk assessment. Specialist hydrogeological input where groundwater is a credible issue for a site.
• Flood modelling. Site-specific hydraulic modelling where standard mapping is not detailed enough for a scheme on or near the Avon.

Local flood risk management and emergency contacts in Stratford-upon-Avon

If a property or site in Stratford-upon-Avon is affected by flooding, or a scheme needs to consult the right authority at the planning stage, these are the bodies responsible and how to reach them.

For non-emergency reporting, Severn Trent Water handles sewer flooding, while Warwickshire County Council's flood team takes reports of surface water and ordinary watercourse flooding away from the Avon itself.

Free flood risk tools for a Stratford-upon-Avon site

Alongside a full flood risk assessment, these free tools give an early, indicative read on a Stratford-upon-Avon site before instructing a report.

• Flood Risk Map. Check flood risk by postcode for rivers and sea, surface water, reservoirs and flood zones.
• Live River Levels Map. See how the River Avon and nearby gauges compare with their typical range right now.
• Geology & Ground Conditions Checker. An early read on whether the ground beneath a site suits soakaway drainage.
• Drainage Calculators. Free UK tools for sizing pipes, soakaways, SuDS attenuation and flow controls.
• BRE 365 Infiltration Rate Calculator. Turn trial-pit soakage test timings into a design infiltration rate.

Frequently asked questions about flood risk assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon