Retired engineer Roger Weatherell had just moved to Churchtown in 2015 when the first major flood happened. In these interviews he described how he helped build the first community-led construction of a significant flood defence scheme in the UK. He did it while recovering from illness, which he touches on too. We also had a chat with John Bracken, who’s the head flood warden for Churchtown. John runs a local pest control business.

This is the second episode in a series telling the stories of members of the Churchtown flood defence group. Churchtown is a village in Lancashire which was flooded from river overflow twice in the space of 8 months in 2015 and 2016.

Notes for listeners:

• When Roger refers to the “EA”, he means the Environment Agency.

• John mentions 'Siriol Hogg' - Siriol kickstarted the defence scheme group in Churchtown, but no longer lives there.

Edit: The original version of this post claimed Roger Weatherell helped to form the first flood action group in the country. Churchtown FLAG is not the first FLAG. He helped build the first community-led construction of a significant flood defence scheme in the UK.