Adaptation and Resilience Strategy

Raising awareness and working with communities to make practical tangible differences at the local level

Using our approach to engaging residents and local business in neighbourhood improvements, the Team aims to work with colleagues in WMCA and in neighbouring Authorities to promote and assist the development of Neighbourhood resilience teams.

Local residents will be encouraged to support one another in creating liveable spaces that protect those living in the vicinity from extreme weather events and to make where they live more resilient in the face of droughts and extreme temperatures. This work has started with some WMCA funded ‘World Café community events targeting the four most vulnerable community areas notably Longford, Hillfields, Foleshill and Radford.

A Flood Risk Management Strategy and Plan and a Surface Water Management Plan for Coventry are in place. There are plans to work with neighbourhood groups to raise awareness of risks and our ability to address them, and promote best practice for households, which can help to conserve water or reduce levels of surface water run-off and flood risk.

One initiative of concern is the extensive laying of hard paving for car parking in front gardens using impermeable surfaces, which increases the risk of surface water flooding at the neighbourhood level. Working with organisations like the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and Garden Organic, we can establish some demonstration front gardens which can accommodate parking, whilst not detracting upon the streetscape or the appearance of the property.

This can be done through using surfaces that allow for vegetation and shade as well as the conservation of water to promote examples of best practice for local residents to see. Local Planning policy will be used to stimulate designs which help to reduce rates of flow and to conserve water such as rainwater harvesting.

 

We will work with medical practitioners in providing accessible information and advice to residents with certain clinical conditions and respiratory illnesses (such as Asthma and COPD). This will help to provide information about the levels of pollutants at any moment in time to let vulnerable residents know where and when it is safe to go out. 

 

Schemes such as the ‘Air Alert’ App used in Hampshire and West Sussex have proved very successful in providing advice and guidance and are well received by GPs and patients alike.  

Providing training and advice to frontline staff who are providing care for people in need will help them to reduce the risk of exposure to extreme weather events.  Staff and volunteers in community organisations, the emergency services. the Council and the NHS, all have an important role to play. With the right knowledge, confidence and skills they can really help vulnerable residents and families in the best and most cost-effective ways to keep cool and protect themselves and their homes from the effects of extreme weather.

 

The increasing risk of extreme weather events will place increasing pressure on finding solutions to complex problems that will require greater levels of innovation and experimentation for finding workable solutions over the years ahead.

The City Council and its partners will continue to lobby for greater recognition, legal powers and resources to enable and facilitate actions and influence future developments to better protect Coventry’s citizens, businesses and the environment from the effects of extreme weather events.