Our City Our River project overview

Our City Our River (OCOR), Derby's flood alleviation project, is led by Derby City Council in partnership with the Environment Agency.

Within the delivery of OCOR are the Munio Projects, which are jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Derby City Council.

In January 2011, the Environment Agency formally adopted the Lower Derwent Flood Risk Management Opens in new tabStrategy which looked at reducing the existing 1 in 25 year chance of flooding from the River Derwent.

Find out if you are at risk of flooding

You can find out your risk of flooding and sign up for warnings on the Gov.uk websiteOpens in new tab.

How will the flood risks be reduced?

The strategy found out that the most appropriate way to reduce flood risk to properties and people would be to realign the flood defences through Derby city centre. This has helped minimise the required height of the defences and any increases in flood risk to upstream and downstream areas.

Since the strategy was created, the Council has worked in partnership with the Environment Agency to propose a solution that would protect people, properties and strategic infrastructure while regenerating key development sites along the riverside in Derby. The uncertainty associated with flood risk meant that developers were less likely to invest in property or land.

The OCOR project has been developed to reduce flood risk and create a high quality riverside, linking the city centre with the river. It includes plans for defences which would provide a greater level of protection up to a 1 in 100 year chance of occurrence and provide an ideal opportunity to release the economic potential of brownfield sites along the river.

Following public consultation, we adopted the Environment Agency led Our City Our River Masterplan in July 2012. The Masterplan represents our commitment to:

• Reduce flood risk in Derby
• Protect the city's heritage and
• Promote sustainable economic development.

The Masterplan outlines the key aims of the project and provides a framework which the Council and its partners will use to create attractive and vibrant areas along the river where people want to live, work and visit. 

What is the schedule for the project?

The delivery of the project is spilt into three packages and, subject to securing necessary funding, is intended to be delivered between 2015 and 2027.

‌The three packages are:

Package 1: Located between the Alfreton Road Industrial Estate in the north and Sowter Road in the south, with the exception of works at Darley Abbey Mills Bridge.

Package 2: Located at Breadsall, Darley Abbey Mills Bridge, all sites between North Riverside and Meadow Lane, and sites at Derby Junction Railway Bridge, Pride Park, Ambaston and Shardlow.

Package 3: Located from Chaddesden Sidings and Triangle and Raynesway on the north side of the river, plus Alvaston Park on the south side of the river.

Due to the complexity and scale of the project, a great deal of preparation work has been done to ensure:

• all regulatory and planning consent requirements are met
• any sensitive historical or archaeological areas have been correctly identified and mapped
• the proposal for each stage of the project has been carefully considered.

A planning application for the project was approved on 15th October 2015 at Derby City Council's Planning Control Committee. The planning application is a hybrid application which includes full and outline planning proposals and proposals to be delivered through the Environment Agency's permitted development rights.

You can view the full planning application on the eplanning service quoting reference number 02/15/00210.

The flood alleviation measures for Package 1 are complete. Package 2 is in progress.