Barnet tendered £1.5m of flood works at Lyndhurst Park and The Meads, with the contract estimated to end 6 October. No contractor is named on the public record.
Barnet Council put £1.5 million of flood alleviation works out to tender for two of its open spaces along the Burnt Oak Brook. The contract it advertised was estimated to finish on 6 October 2026, and the council has not published who won it.
It is one of four Barnet locations taken forward to detailed design under Action for Silk Stream, the six-year flood programme the council runs with the London Borough of Harrow.
What the contract says
The published record is a tender notice the council put on the government’s Find a Tender service on 22 January 2026, under the title “The Meads and Lyndhurst Park Flood Alleviation Scheme” (notice 2026/S 000-005706).
The details it sets out:
- the council is buying “Action for Silk Stream Main Contractor Works in The Meads and Lyndhurst Park HA8 9HE”
- the works cover four green spaces along the Burnt Oak Brook
- the stated objectives are to reduce local flood risk, improve water quality in the brook, and improve biodiversity and amenity
- the value is £1,500,000 excluding VAT, or £1,800,000 including it
- the estimated contract ran from 6 April 2026 to 6 October 2026, with an extension possible to 6 January 2027 if weather or other delays intervene
- bids closed on 4 March 2026 and were scored 50% on quality, 40% on price and 10% on social value
- the council flagged it as suitable for small and medium-sized firms
No contract award notice had been published against that procurement when we checked the government’s own data record on 6 September 2026. The tender is still logged as active. That means the winning contractor is not yet on the public record, and neither is the price actually agreed.
The two open spaces sit either side of the Burnt Oak Brook in The Hale, between Burnt Oak and Mill Hill. The postcode in the council’s notice, HA8 9HE, falls in the Burnt Oak ward.
Why this brook
Barnet’s own flood strategy names the Burnt Oak Brook, which it says is also known as the Watling ditch, among the watercourses that have produced flooding incidents, and puts the Silk Stream catchment along the borough’s western edge among the areas at greatest risk (Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2023-2029).
The scale of the problem across the whole borough, on Environment Agency surface water modelling quoted in that strategy:
In a 1 in 30-year rainfall event, meaning a 3.3% chance in any given year, 4,458 properties in Barnet are at risk. Of those, 3,591 are residential and 348 are commercial; the strategy puts the residential share of at-risk properties at about 80%. Push it to a 1 in 100-year event and the figure is 10,059. At 1 in 1000 years it is 27,256.
Where the money came from
Action for Silk Stream is a partnership between Barnet and Harrow running from 2021 to 2027. Barnet’s strategy says the councils secured £6 million through the government’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation funding. Thames21, one of the delivery partners, says that money comes from Defra’s £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes, managed by the Environment Agency (Thames21).
Feasibility work finished in April 2022 and the Environment Agency approved outline business cases that August. Four Barnet locations were then taken forward to detailed design: Edgwarebury Park, Stoneyfields Park, Watling Park, and Lyndhurst Park and the Meads.
There is history on this brook. Between 2021 and 2022 Barnet worked with Thames21 on a smaller project in Watling Park that stripped out artificial concrete riverbanks and let the channel naturalise. Barnet also allocated £6 million of its Capital Infrastructure Levy to drainage improvements across the borough, including smart sensors intended to feed a flood warning system.
What it means for you
If you use Lyndhurst Park or The Meads. The contract covers main contractor works across four green spaces, so expect construction access and fenced-off ground. The council’s own window ran to 6 October, with an extension to January 2027 already written into the notice, so plan around disruption into the autumn at least.
If you live along the brook. The council’s stated aim for the scheme is to reduce local flood risk and improve the water quality of the brook. It does not change your flood insurance position or your flood risk designation, which are set by Environment Agency mapping, not by construction.
If you want to know when it finishes. The honest answer today is that nobody has published one. The contract award notice is the document that will name the contractor and confirm the real dates, and it has not appeared. Enquiries on the procurement go to procurement@barnet.gov.uk, the address the council gave on the notice.
If you have flooded before. Barnet is the lead local flood authority for surface water and ordinary watercourses, and reporting matters: the strategy’s own priority list was built from recorded incidents. Our Barnet roadworks and travel page tracks closures, and Barnet planning applications covers what else is being built near watercourses.
Have your say