Council services and the communities we serve are impacted by adverse, extreme and more variable weather. Met Office forecasts for Derbyshire are that we'll see hotter and drier summers, warmer and wetter winters, and an increased frequency of extreme weather of any kind.
There are 2 important priorities for us. Firstly we need to consider the impacts of adverse and extreme weather on our services and make plans (including business continuity plans) to protect these services. Secondly, we need to work together to deliver actions for more resilient local communities and a stronger local economy.
What we're doing
We completed an assessment of the risk of extreme weather in 2024. This is being used in the strategic risk registers and many teams now have actions to protect services.
Derbyshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy has identified priority actions that will help build local resilience, for example:
- Restoration of upland moorland, which acts like a sponge, storing rainwater at the top of river catchments
- Increasing the amount of trees, woodland and hedgerows, which can provide shade and also slow the flow of rainwater
- Improving and restoring the connectivity of watercourses and their floodplains, to reduce flood risk
- Supporting farmers to incorporate trees and hedgerows into working farm areas, to provide greater resilience in productive landscapes
- Creating new wetland areas
- Increasing tree cover in urban areas
Other actions we're taking:
- Preparing messages and information for residents for extreme weather events
- Supporting opportunities for natural flood management (for example at Grassmoor Country Park)
- Producing a planning and climate change guidance and assessment tool to guide local planning policy
What you can do - top tips
Discuss with your team:
- what the impacts of extreme weather (floods, heatwaves, storms, snow) on your services will be
- who will be affected and how
- what you can do to respond and adapt
Managers
You can help your team to have discussions. Discussion materials and resources can be requested, email: place.sustainability@derbyshire.gov.uk
We're also keen to know what you have done, so that we can learn from good practice across the council.