Norton Canes Community Library
The first community scheme as part of the FAIR (Flood: Aware, Informed, Resilient) Project has been at the Norton Canes Community Library.
The library is an important community hub for Norton Canes and neighbouring villages and is a safe space for many community and voluntary groups. The library entrance was regularly flooded from surface water during rainfall. Larger events flooded the carpark and grounds of a neighbouring church and caused foul sewer flooding to enter the library.
To reduce this flooding, the FAIR Project has worked with the library to implement an innovative and collaborative community scheme including the installation of:
- Hydrorock natural aquifer blocks which absorb rainwater (that would otherwise cause surface water flooding), ensuring it is released at a steady rate into the ground. The blocks can be cut around existing tree roots and utilities, and this is the first scheme to install them in Staffordshire.
- A rain garden with a loam soil mix, to increase infiltration, has been incorporated on top of this natural aquifer system, allowing the garden to be naturally irrigated when the ground is dry.
- Improved traditional surface-fed drainage (birco channels), draining into the aquifer blocks.
