Ten years on: How devastating floods led to a more resilient city

The ten-year anniversary of the 2015 Boxing Day flood has given pause for thought, and cause for optimism about a more resilient future for Leeds following a decade’s worth of investment in the city’s flood defences. 

Flood resilience in Leeds has never been stronger following the completion of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, one of the largest flood alleviation schemes in the UK, along with several smaller projects across the city.  

Ensuring Leeds is a resilient city is one of the four refreshed Leeds Ambitions, along with being healthy, growing, and thriving. Leeds Climate Commission is the convening partner for the Sustainable: Resilient City ambition. 

Cllr James Lewis, Leader of Leeds City Council, said: “The work to increase our flood resilience impacts all these goals. 

Safeguarding the future 

In December 2015, Storm Eva caused the River Aire to reach its highest ever level of 5.2m following weeks of heavy rain.  With an unprecedented 360 tonnes of water per second flowing through the river, the three waterways in Leeds – the River Aire, the River Wharfe, and the Aire and Calder Navigation – were overwhelmed.  

The resulting flood waters affected fourteen Leeds wards and caused devastating damage to over 2600 homes, 650 businesses, and impacted key infrastructure such as power substations, communications systems, and parts of the road and rail network. 

Since then, by working with partners including the Environment Agency and West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), Leeds City Council has directly completed a £200m project to protect 4000 homes, 1000 businesses, and safeguard 33,000 jobs across the city to a 1-in-200-year standard of protection. 

The first phase of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, known as FAS 1, was completed in 2017.  

Protecting the city centre, FAS 1 stretches from Leeds Station to Woodlesford. The works involved merging the River Aire and canal at Knostrop Cut, building a range of new walls and embankments that still allow waterfront access, and using two innovative movable weirs at Knostrop and Crown Point, that can be lowered independently to temporarily create more space in the channel. The weir technology used is the first of its kind deployed in the UK.  

The second phase of the scheme, known as FAS 2, was completed in 2024 and runs from Leeds Station to Apperley Bridge in Bradford.  

Phase two saw the introduction of several miles of linear flood defences, the introduction of several new pumping stations and flow control structures, and the construction of a huge flood storage area near Calverley. The new storage area, which is operated through raising two large flood gates, has an embankment of 200m in length and a height of 6.2m, meaning it can store the equivalent of over 720 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of water when needed, which can be slowly released once the danger has passed.  

“We know that if Leeds FAS [Flood Alleviation Scheme] operates to its full potential just once, it will have saved more carbon cost than used to build the entire infrastructure. 

“The new flood defences also help to grow our city’s economy, ensuring that businesses and infrastructure are better protected from flooding, and once flood-prone land is made available for development, while also protecting our environment and greenspaces, our community centres and sports facilities to ensure that communities can thrive. 

“Most importantly, our work over the past decade has helped protect our residents from the harm, both physical and mental, that flooding can bring.” 

Ongoing work

In addition to the flood alleviation infrastructure, a team of Leeds City Council flood experts and engineers are on standby around the clock, 365 days a year, to operate and maintain the flood defences.  

Since its completion in 2017, phase one of the scheme has been activated nine times, with the frequency of such extreme weather events likely to increase as the effects of climate change continue to grow. 

A wider programme of smaller flood alleviation projects has also been completed around the Leeds district including schemes in Garforth, Wyke Beck, Mickletown Pit Lane, Otley and Sheepscar. Several more are planned, including works at Meanwood Beck, Thorner Beck, Millshaw Beck, and Wortley Beck. 

Aire Resilience Company

Alongside the infrastructure and engineering works within Leeds, a new organisation called the Aire Resilience Company, an innovative community interest company (CIC), has been set up to create a sustainable business model to install and maintain one of the largest natural flood management schemes in the country, complementary to the hard infrastructure measures. 

Through a consortium of Leeds businesses, funding has been sought to plant up to 750,000 trees and 1240ha of land management in the upper River Aire catchment area, to slow the flow of water from the source of the river and maintain the standard of protection of the Leeds FAS against climate change into the future.   

Commissions’ involvement

The Aire Resilience Company is also actively involved in the work of Leeds Climate Commission through Commissioner Jonathan Moxon, Executive Manager – Flood Risk and Resilience for Leeds City Council. 

Social enterprise Vesper Hill, which uses workshops and performances based on real life people’s experiences, has told some of the stories of people and businesses that were profoundly affected by the Boxing Day flood in its interactive piece, Inundated. 

The performance, which was designed by theatremaker Stephen Scott-Bottoms, a Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission Associate, vividly describes the challenges faced by local businesses, and involves participants in discussions on solutions. 

Steve was also central to the development of a Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission Weather Narratives project that resulted in Pam’s Story, a toolkit now being used by organisations such as the Met Office to engage people in discussions around resilience, especially flooding. 

Photos: Ten years on from the ‘Boxing Day floods’ (Credit: Leeds City Council)