PRESS RELEASE COPY
Last week’s flooding caused misery throughout Northern England*. Towns such as Hebden Bridge are now counting the cost of the clean up with householders feeling frustrated that adequate protection wasn’t available at the time of the flooding.
A Dorset-based entrepreneur hopes to change the way in which people and organisations protect themselves from the risk of flooding through a unique hire service supplying a lightweight flood barrier he developed whilst at university.
The award-winning Floodstop – flood defence barrier was the brainchild of Simon Phelps, 28, founder of Fluvial Innovations. He developed the idea during his final year studying design at Bournemouth University after watching a TV programme recounting the devastating Lewes & Uckfield floods of 2000. The programme demonstrated that a huge number of properties were flooded because sandbagging methods proved utterly ineffective. Since graduating, Simon has been worked alongside Bournemouth University to make the patented technology available to people and communities at risk of flooding.
The Floodstop – flood protection barrier which is a low-cost, rapidly deployable flood barrier is used by homeowners, businesses and local authorities throughout the world. In 2009, The Emergency Planning Society voted the Floodstop barrier as its most innovative product. The EPS promotes effective planning and managing of local emergency preparation and response.
The company has now launched a unique UK-wide hire service allowing individuals and organisations to hire the Floodstop – flood barrier when a flood risk is present. It means a huge cost and time saving for users and offers a real alternative to trying to assemble dreaded sandbags at the 11th hour.
“One of the major problems households face is the need to prepare adequate defences at the time of a flood threat. If the household hasn’t previously invested in flood defence product, they can’t protect their property. However with the hire service, any property located in the United Kingdom can now do so, at the time of the event.”
As we have seen with the recent flooding, huge parts of the UK are at risk from the ever-increasing threat of flooding; it’s clear that sandbags do not offer adequate protection.
“Sandbags were used during the summer floods of 2007. They didn’t work then and they have never been effective at flood prevention. Sandbags are deployed to put people’s minds at rest that councils are doing something, when in truth they are expensive, slow to assemble and often ineffective at dealing with floodwaters”
“Households, businesses and local authorities now have a new option in the fight against flooding. They can hire a proven system that can be immediately delivered direct to site to mitigate against flooding. Floodstop – flood defence can be rapidly deployed by one person. It doesn’t need to be bolted to the ground and the units, are simply connected using slide-in keys.”