WILTSHIRE Council is considering a strategy to help increase its understanding of flooding in the county in a bid to prepare for future incidents.

Councillors have drawn up a draft local flood risk strategy which they have put out for public consultation before it is fully adopted.

It involves working with a number of groups and organisations, ranging from water companies to residents’ associations, to collate as much information as possible.

From this it wants to develop a long-term plan to deal with severe flooding.

Last year local authorities were given responsibility for dealing with flooding and coming up with a plan. A few months ago Swindon Council adopted its own plan and now Wiltshire is following suit.

In recent years there have been a number of periods of heavy rainfall which have lead to properties flooding, some in north Wiltshire. Most recently 500 properties flooded during heavy rains at the start of 2014.

The council says the plan will allow it to assess the most severe risk areas in the county and how it will respond.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council said: “Flooding is a serious issue in Wiltshire, with extensive flooding in the north of the county taking place in 2007 and 2008, and more recently across the whole county in 2014, when more than 500 properties were affected.

“Our local flood risk strategy seeks to improve knowledge regarding flood risk, protection from flooding, resilience to flooding and improve communications about flooding issues.”

The council works with residents, neighbouring authorities and other stakeholders on flood prevention schemes, as well as managing the response to flooding incidents, for example by assisting the elderly or infirm with sandbags and protecting commercial property to prevent environmental pollution.

The formal consultation gives people the opportunity to have their say and is open until the end of December.

The spokesman added:“We are currently seeking the views of the public, local councils and other organisations regarding the proposed local flood risk management strategy.

“The results of the consultation will be reported to the council’s cabinet when the strategy is considered for adoption early next year.”