PREVENTING flash flooding in Bournemouth is “simply impossible” and up to 1,800 homes are at risk of being deluged in the worst case scenario, according to a council report.

A draft strategy for flood risk management, which Bournemouth council has been required to produce by law, has been put out to public consultation following repeated “flooding events” in areas including the town centre, Queen’s Park, Winton, Northbourne and Kinson.

Click here to read the draft strategy for flood risk management in full

The report acknowledges that the borough “like many other urban areas has evolved over decades with little or no thought to surface flooding”.

“Whenever there is any redevelopment the new infrastructure must take flooding into account,” the report says.

“It is simply impossible to prevent flash flooding but we can minimise the impact by making space for the water within the planning process.”

Previous prediction techniques suggested up to 4,200 homes in the town were at risk of flooding.

However, this report says that the estimate has been reduced to around 1,800.

“This estimation of the number of properties flooded assumes any storm covers the whole area simultaneously,” the report explains.

“Previous experience has shown that a storm of this intensity is likely to be far more localised. So generally over a very long period of time you would get this number of properties flooded but it would be very unlikely that they all happen at the same time.”

The report adds that before the winters of 2012/13 and 2013/14 it had been assumed groundwater flooding was not a significant problem in the borough.

“However, the events of both these winters highlighted a number of relatively localised areas of groundwater flooding, particularly centred on the Northbourne/Kinson area of the town,” the report says.

It adds that the distribution of groundwater in Northbourne and Kinson is “notably different to the rest of Bournemouth".

The report says the council is working with partners including Wessex Water and landowners to find solutions to the “complex problems”.

Bournemouth has applied for one major flooding project “to resolve surface water flooding along the route of the old valley system which runs from Winton down through Queens Park and Cooper Dean.”

However, that for this to come to fruition “significant additional partnership funding” needs to be found.

The report says the trash screens used to stop flooding at Fernheath and Kinson Dam need improvement and that stream level monitoring equipment could be installed, which could alert the authorities in advance of impending flooding.

To take part in the council’s online consultation, visit http://archive.bournemouth.gov.uk/floodriskstrategy