Whitstable Flood Risk

Whitstable has a Low flood risk from rivers and the sea , with 4.1% of homes in a Medium or High band. The nearest gauge is 1.7 km away.

Whitstable has 31,893 residents and 15,996 homes. Ranked 920 of 7,114 in England for rivers and sea flood risk.

What Is The River Level Near Whitstable Right Now?

8.032 m within its typical range
Gauge
Grasmere Road, Swalecliffe
Distance
1.7 km from the centre of Whitstable
Typical range
8.162 m to 8.5 m
Reading taken
20 Sept, 14:00 UTC

Read from the Environment Agency flood-monitoring feed at 20 Sept, 14:34 UTC. The highest level on record here is 9.891 m , reached on 8 February 2001.

All gauges on this river

Why Are Parts Of Whitstable In Flood Zone 3 But Rated Low Risk?

11.3% of postcodes in Whitstable fall in Flood Zone 3, but the flood risk band for rivers and the sea is low. The two maps measure different things: the Flood Zone ignores defences, and the band counts them.

Why a Flood Zone 3 house can be Low risk

When Has Whitstable Flooded Before?

The Environment Agency holds 7 recorded flood outlines covering Whitstable, the most recent dated 21 August 2007.

Absence of a record is not evidence that a place has never flooded — the Environment Agency states that a lack of coverage does not mean an area has never flooded.

What Does Whitstable's Flood Risk Classification Mean?

11.3% of postcodes in Whitstable sit in Flood Zone 3, the planning band for land with a 1% or greater annual chance of river flooding or 0.5% or greater of sea flooding — and the map that draws it deliberately ignores flood defences.

The flood risk band for rivers and the sea is Low , with 4.1% of homes in a Medium or High band. Unlike the Flood Zone, the band counts the defences that are actually in place, which is why the two can describe the same street differently and both be right.

Whitstable is one of the places where they disagree most in England: a large share of its postcodes are in Flood Zone 3, yet few of its homes carry a Medium or High band. The gap is the defences — land the planning map must treat as floodplain, behind a barrier that lowers the present-day chance of flooding.

Flood Zone versus flood risk band: the full comparison

Which Postcode Districts Cover Whitstable?

Each district below is one postcode district that falls inside Whitstable. The band is the one shared by most of that district's postcodes, so it describes the district rather than a single street — enter a full postcode in the checker for one address. A district can cover more than one town, and the district pages linked from the checker are keyed to the town that holds most of its postcodes.

Postcode districts covering Whitstable, with the flood risk band shared by most of each district's postcodes. A district can span more than one local area, so its band is a summary and not a property-level answer.
Postcode district Postcodes here Rivers and sea band Surface water addresses
CT5 912 High 2,046

What Else Is Near Whitstable?