Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) are currently running a Flood Warden scheme across the county where volunteers can help their local communities understand flood risk and local responsibilities. We have successfully run this scheme in Witney, Ascott under Wychwood, Abingdon and Sunningwell and are looking for further areas to expand it to.
Who can become a Flood Warden?
Flood wardens are members of the local community – they can be individuals, representatives of the parish council or existing volunteers, for example, community resilience volunteers already part of community emergency plans, highway wardens or police volunteers.
You can apply to become a Volunteer Flood Warden if you:
- are aged 18 or over
- live or work in Oxfordshire
- want to support you community to be more resilient to flooding.
What is the main role of a Flood Warden?
The main role of the flood wardens is to be the eyes and the ears on the ground and report to us things liked blocked ditches and drains in the hope that we can resolve these issues before a flood event will occur.
No specialist knowledge or previous flood experience is required. There’s no set number of hours required, you can volunteer on your own schedule, as the role is designed to be flexible and manageable alongside work and personal commitments.
Is there training and support available?
Yes! OCC’s Flood Risk Management Team and Volunteer Coordination Team support flood wardens in their role and provide the necessary training. Before signing the volunteer agreement, every new flood warden will complete an informal one‑hour training call to run through the role in more detail.
Joint Oxfordshire Resilience Team (JORT) and the OCC Highways team can provide additional support with community emergency plans and road closures during flooding events. Find out more about Community Emergency Plans on the OCC website.
Flood wardens are covered by Oxfordshire County Council’s volunteer arrangements, including appropriate insurance, when you sign the volunteer agreement and officially join as a Volunteer Community Flood Warden.
Is there any more information available?
Further information can be found in the below documents.
We have recently mapped all the areas our active Flood Wardens cover, visit the ‘Risk Map’ to view these under our ‘Flood Warden’ layer!