The Solent Forum

Working in partnership for the future

Site 2: Southampton, Upper West Itchen

The CCATCH team have been working with the community on the west bank of the Itchen (between Horseshoe Bridge and Mansbridge) on issues and solutions to the threat of flooding.  The main outputs from the project were:

The project's final newsletter summarises the work undertaken.  The Belsize Flood Resilience Project will continue to work with communities at risk.


Issues to Address


Community Liaison and Events


The Belsize Flood Resilience Project

Southampton City Council successfully bid for pathfinder project funding. The project focuses on reducing the risk of flooding through property level protection and preparedness of the community to respond to future flood events, in the 1:75 flood zone.


Property Level Protection


Autumn Community Event – Celebrating Living by the Waterside

An event was held on Saturday 19th October 2013 at the Hard, Priory Road with between 60 and 80 people attending.  It informed the wider community of St Deny’s of the work that the CCATCH project had been doing. The components of the event included:

The report from the event is available to download - Living by the Waterside report.


Task and Finish Groups 

The Website Group

To create a website, distinct from the CCATCH Project webpages - St Denys and West Itchen Tide News.

The Levels Group

To establish the height of land around the neighbourhood and people’s properties to allow comparison with the river water levels.

Flood Marker Group

This group have designed a flood interpretation board to put in three locations on the river, Woodmill, Cobden Bridge (Riverside Park) and the Hard at Priory Road. These will be accompanied by a flood marker. The design of the board can be downloaded, and they will be installed Summer 2014.

The Walls Group

A group of approximately 24 residents, in the upper end of Priory Road, formed to improve the walls running through the backs of their gardens.


What else has been going on?


Key Lesson Learnt

The community required technical information in advance. This enables them to understand and have confidence in the project. Setting up Community Task and Finish groups is a good way of tapping into community spirit and empowering people to take actions forward. Demonstrating property level protection in a local house is a very effective way of showing how it works.


Taking the project forward


Project Resources


Further Information

More information can be found on the community website, ‘Community Tide News: St Denys, West Itchen’.


Community Group Meetings Reports

The launch of the Southampton Itchen Community Group was held on 24th January 2012 (download meeting report). This followed a public meeting held on 8th November 2012. A newsletter was presented at the meeting which provides a good overview of the overall project.

A further Community Group meeting was held on 23rd May 2013 at the Riverside Social Club in Priory Road (download meeting report). At this meeting a number of presentations were given:

  1. CCATCH Southampton Progress Report
  2. Southern Water Presentation
  3. Walls Group - Priory Road Flood Defence
  4. Land Height Presentation and Levels (large file available on request)
  5. Website Development Proposals (large file available on request)