Flooding scheme gives Berkshire village 'peace of mind'
The Environment Agency has completed a project to protect a village in west Berkshire
Last updated 11th Nov 2025
The Environment Agency has completed the celebrated the Great Shefford Flood Alleviation scheme. The £5.2 million project is aimed at protecting 26 local properties against flooding from the nearby Great Shefford Stream.
The scheme works by diverting water around the village along a specially constructed 1km diversion channel. It has a ‘passive’ design, so it doesn’t need to be manually operated. This new waterway is a mix of underground pipeline, rectangular culverts and an open channel section with a backwater at is confluence with the Lambourn.
Delighted
Anna Burns, Environment Agency Thames Director said: ‘We are delighted that the Great Shefford flood scheme was completed in the summer. The village has been badly affected in the past by property flooding, and we hope the scheme allows residents better peace of mind should we be facing heavy rains in the months ahead.”
Flooding
Great Shefford has experienced dangerously high water levels and flooding more than once since the millennium, most notably in July 2007 and February 2014. In the more recent incident, 16 homes suffered from internal flooding after the Great Shefford Stream broke its banks (SOURCE West Berkshire Parish Flood Investigation Report).
Benefit
Nick Voysey, Great Shefford resident and secretariat of the Lambourn Valley Flood Forum said: “The completion of this scheme will not only be of huge benefit to those residents of Great Shefford who have suffered in the past from repeated flooding of their properties, with all the trauma and distress that involves, but it will also be of very significant benefit to the wider community. The project, completed by the Environment Agency, will hopefully prove to be of great value to the Lambourn Valley for many years, as we all have to learn to deal with the effects of climate change affecting our lives'.