In major flood incidents, the priorities of the Council and its partners are:
- to provide material and technical support to the emergency services and EA in their immediate responses;
- to provide welfare support for people evacuated or stranded in homes;
- to co-ordinate a recovery process to help smooth a return to normality.
To enable this to happen in an effective manner, the Council has developed a number of emergency plans for flooding. There is a generic Flooding Plan able to be used for all types of flooding, but other plans have been developed with partners to address specific, known flood risks such as the River Aire in Central Leeds, and the River Wharfe at Otley. The Council is working increasingly with community groups to develop local flooding plans which can be implemented quickly by local residents to address flooding when it happens rather than after emergency responders arrive. This section provides an overview of these arrangements.