Cornwall Council is a Lead Local Flood Authority. It is required to investigate and publish reports on significant flood incidents in Cornwall under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act (2010).
A significant incident is defined as:
- Five or more properties flooded internally from the same source of flooding, or
- One or more properties flooded internally that has also flooded internally at least three times within the previous 5 years, or
- Critical infrastructure affected (e.g. main roads or rail links closed for six hours of more), or
- There is risk to human life.
The Flood Investigation Reports determine likely causes of significant flooding. They also identify the appropriate risk management authority to take forward any necessary actions.
Cornwall Council creates a Flood Incident Record when it becomes aware of a flood event, through:
- the media,
- emergency service logs
- Environment Agency
- the public
- our own investigations.
Published Flood Investigation Reports are based upon the internally held Flood Incident Records. They do not identify properties other than businesses, such as pubs, already in the media.
We may publish Flood Investigation Reports for incidents that do not meet the criteria. We will do this if we consider the flood incident to be significant due to its severity.
A chronology of major flood events in Cornwall was compiled for the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment in 2011.
Many small flood incidents go unreported. If you wish to report a flood incident please refer to the report a flood page.
Please find below the Section 19 Reports for the last 10 years:
- 2012 Section 19 Report
- 2013 Section 19 Report
- 2014 Section 19 Report
- 2017 Section 19 Report
- 2019 Section 19 Report
Flood events post 2019 are reported within the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management annual reports for the Neighbourhoods Overview Scrutiny Committee (NOSC).
