Secure your free water butt

We're protecting communities at risk of extreme weather in the latest phase of our Lower Floods Campaign, which has kicked off in Chingford Mount.

The pioneering initiative explores streets in and around the Chingford Mount area, offering households a free garden water butt installed by the Council’s contractor Service Store. 

The Council has targeted areas at particularly high risk of surface water flooding as part of our Lower Floods campaign. . The Chingford Mount area, alongside smaller areas in Leytonstone and Walthamstow, will be the latest part of the borough to benefit from the offer of free water butts.

This stage of the campaign aims for 500 water butts to be installed in Chingford Mount, building flood resilience collectively. This stops a significant volume of rainwater from entering the drainage network, reducing risk of flooding in the process. 

The Lower Floods campaign has already installed around 1,000 water butts in neighbourhoods at risk from extreme rainfall in previous stages, slowing, storing and diverting more than 150,000 litres of rainwater heading for local drainage networks. Previous phases have focused on the Fillebrook Catchment around Wood Street, Upper Walthamstow and Leytonstone, as well as the Dagenham Brook, Lea Bridge and parts of Leyton.

Cllr Clyde Loakes MBE Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Air Quality, said:

Our Lower Floods Campaign is about working in partnership with dedicated residents and community groups to deliver support for households in areas at high risk of flooding. If you live in the Chingford Mount area please check if you are eligible and make sure you take us up on the offer of a free water butt for your front or back garden. 

This campaign has been really successful so far because it harnesses the power of dedicated residents to be involved in positive steps to take climate action and relies on the power of the local community to make a difference. Our residents overwhelmingly support action to reduce our climate impact and want to be part of the change. It is time for us to harness this resolve by equipping residents with the tools to make the impact they want to see. The threat of the climate emergency cannot be understated, but together, we can deliver the solutions towards net-zero emissions and a greener, more sustainable borough.

People who live in the Chingford Mount area are eligible for this latest phase of the Lower Floods free water butts scheme.