Remember remember the fifth of November! Cornwall Community Flood Forum’s annual conference can’t wait to welcome all our members and Cornwall communities back to gathering in person for the first time since our last meeting in December 2019! For those of you who may still not feel comfortable meeting in large groups or do not want to travel, fear not! We will be running this conference as an online event too! We will hear presentations across a broad spectrum of flood-related topics, including speakers from the Met Office, what3words, Perranporth Community Flood Group and many more! We would be delighted if you were to join us for the day on Friday 5th November either in person at Heartlands Visitor Attraction or virtually on Zoom! Our free conference is open to absolutely everyone in Cornwall and beyond!

Description

The earth's climate has seen many changes in its 4.5 billion years. Whilst some of these changes occur naturally, current changes are a result of increasing human populations and activities. Consequently, we are now experiencing more extreme weather events. Since records began in 1884, the ten warmest years in the UK have all occurred since 2002 and 2020 was the first year to have temperature, rain and sunshine rankings all in the top 10 (Met Office). We are also experiencing more frequent and intense rainfalls and storms; two named storms occurred in August 2020 and more recently Storm Evert arrived in July 2021. This is the first time we have ever recorded named storms in the months of July and August here in the UK. Such abnormalities are a clear indication that our global climate is changing. To reflect this, in 2019 Cornwall Council declared a ‘Climate Emergency’ and we are pleased to see that this decision has been replicated by many Parish and Town Councils across the Duchy. It is impossible to be precise about how much or how quickly the situation may change, but both longer wet periods and more intense rainfalls should be expected and being a Peninsula- which puts Cornwall at higher potential risk than other areas in the UK.

It is therefore vital that we act now to learn how to adapt and become more resilient to future extreme weather events. As the Cornwall Community Flood Forum, our focus is on flooding and our conference this year has a theme of managing and responding to the flood aspects of Climate Change in Cornwall. We will hear from speakers covering topics on what is happening today as well as speakers who will explain some of the actions you can take now to be better prepared in the event of flood or wider emergency.

Please be aware that, due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, some of our morning speakers will be presenting virtually but these talks will be projected onto the large screen in the main conference hall. Our afternoon session is aimed at those who attend Heartlands in person only, we are sorry that we cannot offer these workshops as an option for those attending the Virtual conference by Zoom in the morning. We have 3 interactive workshops for you to choose to participate in, details of the workshops on offer can be found below. Participants can choose to attend 2 out of the 3 possible workshops on offer and you will be asked for your workshop choice during registration.

Workshop Choice 1: Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Pathfinder Demonstrations, SW PFR Pathfinder Team. The South West PFR Pathfinder team will be on hand to walk you through a range of different demonstrations housed at Heartlands Visitor attraction. You can find out more about the SW PFR Project by clicking here.

Workshop Choice 2: Community resilience – the volunteer journey

This workshop, run by Communities Prepared, will focus on the volunteer journey from getting volunteers signed up to your community flood group to keeping them engaged over the long-term. For newer groups, or those looking to expand, the Communities Prepared team will share some practical tips from existing groups around the country, as well as running activities to help you think through what motivates community members to become volunteers and how you can make the most of this to grow your group. For those groups who are already well established it will be a chance to come together as flood wardens to share your experiences of operating and communicating as a group and with the community, so please come ready to tell your stories!

Workshop Choice 3: Cornwall Coastal Erosion & Communities. Run by Cornwall Climate Care, this session links on from the morning presentation on Coastal Change & Adaptation from the Environment Agency and Cornwall Council. Cornwall Climate Care will be showcasing their new film on coastal communities/ erosion/ sea level rise and storms.

A free lunch and tea & coffee will be provided at Heartlands. Please let us know of any dietary requirements or any allergies as soon as possible to ensure we have time to arrange alternative meals. PLEASE NOTE WE ARE NOW UNABLE TO TAKE REQUESTS FOR DIETARY REQUIREMENTS AS THE CATERING ORDER HAS BEEN SUBMITTED.

Last but not least, we are delighted to offer those attending Heartlands the opportunity to stay on following the closing of the conference to watch the annual Heartlands Fireworks display! This is a fantastic event attended by many every year. Heartlands is just off the A30 at Pool and can be easily accessed by most modes of transport. There is car parking available on site for a charge but this can be redeemed upon a £5 purchase in the café. For further details on how to get to Heartlands, car parking, accessibility etc. please see their website (https://www.heartlandscornwall.com/visit-heartlands/)