A new flood warning system designed to give faster, street-by-street information is being trialled across Lincolnshire, with remote sensors now installed at 66 locations.
Lincolnshire County Council’s Project Groundwater team says the devices act like “river alarms”, sending water-level readings from smaller rivers and streams to an online portal that residents can check on their phone or computer. The service is free to use.
The trial follows a difficult winter for parts of the county. Julie Leighton, from Billingborough, said the technology could help people act sooner after the village suffered serious flooding in January 2025. Her home was among properties affected during Storms Henk and Babet, and she said she had been living in a static caravan on her driveway until recently.
“This gives you an early warning,” she said. “You know how bad a flood is going to be, whether you need to move stuff upstairs and how quickly you need to act.”
Vicky Jones, flood resilience programme co-ordinator on the council’s Project Groundwater team, said the aim is to complement the Environment Agency (EA) warning system, which typically covers wider areas.
“We’ve targeted local flooding hotspots and at the moment we’ve got 66 towns and villages with these devices in place, with 35 other communities about to join,” she said.
The first sensor was installed in Heighington, near Lincoln, after flooding in winter 2023. Jones said the village school was badly hit, including water coming up from the ground inside the building, prompting the idea to monitor groundwater levels as well as surface water.
Unlike large rivers that are already monitored, smaller watercourses can rise quickly and cause localised flooding. Jones said the project provides “hyperlocal data” that previously did not exist.
In Billingborough, volunteer-run Billingborough Flood Group has welcomed the trial. Group member Krys Szokalo said the system could offer reassurance as well as warnings, while longer-term work continues locally.
“Our objective in the group is to try to tackle the root causes of the problems,” he said. “We are looking at ways of holding water back to the west of the village, clearing watercourses and dealing with drainage problems in the area.”
The council said the 66 locations include places with a history of flooding or known risks, including Fiskerton, Grantham, Market Rasen, Boston and Ruskington.
Councillor Danny Brookes, the county council’s executive member for environment, said the new system does not replace EA alerts but adds another layer of information for communities.
“This doesn’t replace those flood alerts, but takes this great idea and goes that bit further, to better prepare local communities which have suffered flooding in the past,” he said.
Residents can register their interest and find out more through community drop-in sessions, or by emailing innovative.resilience@lincolnshire.gov.uk. The scheme is supported by Defra funding as part of its £200m Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme.
An EA spokesperson said it was “pleased to see this project come to fruition” and that it would provide increased flood resilience for communities in Lincolnshire.
This story was adapted by The Lincoln Post from original reporting by www.bbc.com.
