Content

Barnet Council secures £300,000 funding for Watling Park flood prevention project

Published:

A visualisation of the flood storage pond and 're-meandered' channel at Watling Park.

A visualisation of the flood storage pond and 're-meandered' channel at Watling Park.

Barnet Council has received £300,000 from the Mayor of London’s Green and Resilient Spaces Fund to help its flood resilience project in Watling Park, Burnt Oak.

This comes as part of a joint application with Harrow Council, totalling £600,000 awarded to the wider Silk Stream Catchment Parks project.

This is in addition to the £6 million already received from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in 2021 as part of the six-year Action for Silk Stream project.

Chair of Barnet’s Environment and Climate Change Committee, Cllr Alan Schneiderman, said: “The Council has a vision to become net zero carbon in Barnet by 2042. Using nature to solve issues such as flooding will assist in reaching the goal.

“The scheme will bring new features to Watling Park, which will attract more wildlife and have a positive impact on the local environment.

“This additional funding highlights what we can achieve when we work collaboratively with the Mayor of London and our neighbouring boroughs. “

The Watling Park project will create a flood storage basin to help prevent the risk of flood waters reaching homes and roads at the south end of the park.

Fitting in seamlessly with nature, these underground basins will sit below new wetlands that will intercept surface water drain, improve water quality and provide additional flood storage.