What can I do to prevent flooding?

Do you live by a watercourse?

If you own land or property alongside a watercourse you have certain rights and responsibilities under the Land Drainage Act 1991 as a ‘riparian’ owner. A watercourse is any natural or artificial channel through which water flows, including culverts. The Environment Agency Living on the edge booklet provides more information and guidance for ‘riparian’ owners. The responsibilities of riparian owners include certain maintenance activities, aimed principally at ensuring that water can flow freely through the channel.

LBC are the Land Drainage Authority for Luton with permissive powers relating to ‘ordinary’ watercourses (small brooks and streams). If you are planning to carry out works to an ‘ordinary’ watercourse you will need to contact us as you may need to get our consent before going ahead.

Littering and flytipping

Fly tipping and litter dropping around Luton can lead to flooding as drainage systems and watercourses can easily become blocked with rubbish so that water cannot run away. Please help to keep streets and watercourses clean in your area.

Your drains

Please keep your drains clear of fats, cooking oils and greases by disposing of these via bins. The chance of flooding from the foul sewers is increased when sewers fill up with substances which block the flow of wastewater away from your property. See Thames Waters’ “bin it, don’t block it” scheme.

Tell us what you know

If you live in Luton and have seen or experienced flooding in the past we would like to hear from you. We want to improve our records of historic flood events to help us better understand and manage future flood risk. Please email or call us using the contact information below.

Report flooding

If you see a flood on a road, who you report it to will depend on whose responsibility it is to deal with it. Please see our highways website for further details.

Prepare for flooding

If your property is at risk of flooding, there are things you could do to reduce the impact of flooding on your home or business. Please see Environment Agency website for further details.