Flooding volunteers come together for annual training event
Closing roads during flood emergencies and staying safe around flood water are just some of the things that more than 70 volunteers from across Nottinghamshire have come together to learn about over the weekend.
The volunteers from Nottinghamshire County Council’s Community Flood Signage Scheme, came together at County Hall on Saturday 21 March as part of the council’s annual training event designed to upskill new volunteers and refresh the training.
The Community Flood Signage Scheme helps residents to support their communities should flooding or severe weather hit and there are now more than 650 volunteers across 52 schemes in Nottinghamshire.
As part of the event, volunteers saw a practical demonstration of how to set up signs on the county’s road network and heard from the county council’s health and safety team about risk control measures when dealing with flooding.
Councillor Bert Bingham, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “Our Community Flood Signage volunteers play a vitally important role in protecting communities across Nottinghamshire from flooding.
“We know that flooding can have devastating consequences and when flooding does hit, it is our network of volunteers who are often first on the scene to put signs and road closures in place.
“We’re delighted to have 52 schemes in place across Nottinghamshire, and 34 of these schemes have been set up in the last two years showing how dedicated our communities are to reducing the impacts of flooding in their local areas.
“Our network of volunteers receives full training from ourselves alongside Via East Midlands and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and over the weekend I had the pleasure of attending this most recent volunteer training event.
“Since taking on the role of Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment in May 2025, I have met with representatives of our community flood signage schemes and it is great that both experienced and new volunteers come together for the annual training to share knowledge and ideas.
“Training days such as this are a great example of how we support our volunteers and any community interested can contact us about setting up a scheme.”
More information about the scheme can be found on the county council’s website: https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/planning-and-environment/flooding-help-and-advice/schemes-to-help-reduce-flooding