Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the practice of holding flood water in the Jubilee River channel to prevent flooding of properties in Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton; and of its impacts on downstream communities.

The Jubilee flood relief channel, forms part of the ‘Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Scheme’ that reduces the risk of flooding to 3,200 properties in Maidenhead, Windsor, Eton and Cookham. Published details on the Jubilee River flood alleviation scheme are available on - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The flood relief channel is not designed to store or hold flood water. It provides additional capacity for water that would have flowed through and flooded communities in Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton, taking it a different route via the Jubilee flood relief channel, before returning it back into the Thames upstream of Datchet.

Flood modelling for the Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Scheme prior to its construction showed that the scheme would not increase flood risk for others.

After flooding in 2003, independent river modelling was completed to re-examine any impacts from the Jubilee flood relief channel on downstream communities. The results showed that there is very little difference made to water flows at Windsor compared to levels downstream when the channel is operated. The executive summary of the independent modelling was carried out and described in ‘Mechanisms of Flooding’ [attached].