Fenland

At a glance

Type

District council (two-tier area)

ONS code

E07000010

Area

546 km²

Region

East of England

Fire and rescue

Cambridgeshire

Police

Cambridgeshire

Emergency planning partnership

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Resilience Forum

Largest built-up areas

Wisbech, March, Whittlesey and Chatteris

Council emergency pages

Fenland is a district council in a two-tier area. Cambridgeshire County Council is the highway authority, so gritting and winter roads are a county service.

• Council website fenland.gov.uk (official address; the site blocked our automated check)
• Emergency planning fenland.gov.uk (official link listed on GOV.UK Local Links Manager; the site blocked our automated check)
• Gritting and winter roads Gritting roads, cycleways and paths (Cambridgeshire County Council)
• Current emergencies and severe weather fenland.gov.uk (official link listed on GOV.UK Local Links Manager; the site blocked our automated check)

Councils announce rest centres, road closures and emergency help on these pages and their social media. Find your council by postcode (GOV.UK).

Power cuts

Report a power cut or check one: call 105 free from any phone, or use the operator’s website.

Network operator (not your supplier):

• UK Power Networks (East England)

Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence area, April 2024 to March 2025, counting cuts of 3 minutes or longer:

• East England (UK Power Networks): 44.6 interruptions per 100 customers and 32.5 minutes without power per customer (2023/24: 46.2 and 35.6)

Great Britain as a whole: 39.7 and 35.1. These are area averages, not figures for Fenland alone. About this dataset

Flooding

Environment Agency: 5 flood alert areas and 11 flood warning areas overlap Fenland. Waters named: River Nene, Old Bedford, Delph, Middle Level Drains, Mortons Leam, The Wash.

Warning areas include: Areas near the River Nene in Peterborough and surrounding villages; B1040 Thorney to Whittlesey Road to the South of the River Nene; Long Sutton to Newborough and surrounding areas; Middle Level Commissioner area at Pondersbridge, Turves and Upwell; North Bank Road alongside the River Nene, east of Peterborough and west of Dog-in-a-Doublet Sluice; Old Bedford Counter Drain west bank Flood Defence at Welney, Christchurch and Nordelph; River Delph west bank Flood Defences at Benwick, Chatteris and Manea; River Nene in the Yarwell Headland and West Delph areas of Whittlesey; and 3 more.

Check for flooding now · Sign up for free flood warnings (GOV.UK). Floodline: 0345 988 1188.

Weather warnings

The Met Office issues yellow, amber and red warnings for rain, wind, snow, ice, fog, thunderstorms and extreme heat. Current Met Office warnings (choose East of England on the map) · What the colours mean

Health: NHS help and the nearest A&E

For urgent medical help that is not life-threatening, use NHS 111 online or call 111. Find urgent and emergency care services · Find NHS services near you (NHS website)

The nearest type 1 (major) A&E departments to the centre of each of the largest built-up areas, by straight-line distance (as the crow flies, not by road):

• Wisbech: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (21.6 km); Peterborough City Hospital (31.2 km); Pilgrim Hospital (37.9 km).
• March: Peterborough City Hospital (25.0 km); Hinchingbrooke Hospital (31.4 km).
• Whittlesey: Peterborough City Hospital (11.2 km); Hinchingbrooke Hospital (25.5 km).

We have not found an open official list of urgent treatment centres and minor injury units for England, so they are not shown here.

About this dataset

Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS.

Water supply

Water company for this area:

• Anglian Water · Check on or report an issue

To report no water, low pressure or a burst main, use the company’s page above. Your water bill names your supplier.

Water resource zones covering Fenland: Ruthamford North (Anglian Water, about 58% of the area); Fenland (Anglian Water, about 41% of the area). What a water resource zone is

What to do when the water goes off

Local risks and emergency planning

• Coast: about 39 km of the council boundary is shoreline at mean high water, by our measurement (this includes tidal estuaries). Coastal flooding and storm surges are possible; the flood areas above include any coastal ones.
• Flooding: 11 flood warning areas and 5 flood alert areas overlap the council area (details above).
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Resilience Forum publishes a community risk register: the official list of emergencies that planners prepare for here.
• Hazards the register names include (our grouping of its wording): Flooding; Fuel shortages; Snow and low temperatures; Building collapse; Storms and severe weather; Heatwaves; Drought; Outbreaks of infectious disease; Animal disease; Power cuts; Loss of water supply; Telecoms failure; Industrial and chemical accidents; Transport accidents; Poor air quality; Public disorder; Space weather; Volcanic eruption. Open the register for how likely and how serious each one is judged to be.

We list only what official sources say. We do not rate how safe or risky anywhere is.

Map

Phone and broadband coverage

Ofcom’s predictions of normal coverage in Fenland, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.

• Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 73%; from none: 0.8%.
• Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 99%; from none: 0%.
• Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 99%; from none: 0%.
• Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 88%.
• Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 93 (0.2%).

Check an address on Ofcom’s coverage checker · Phones when the network is down: how to reach 999 · About this dataset

Local radio

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

This is the BBC station for the county or area, from the BBC Sounds station list. Coverage overlaps council boundaries, so tune to whichever station you receive.

Census 2021: planning prompts

• Households with no car or van: 15.9%
• Residents aged 65 or over: 22.8%
• Households of one person aged 66 or over: 14.4%

Who would fetch food or medicines for you or a neighbour on icy or flooded roads, and who would you check on in a power cut? Ask your pharmacist about repeat prescriptions before bad weather.

Largest built-up areas

• Wisbech
  • Tidal River Nene from Dog-in-a-Doublet Sluice to Wisbech
  • Wash Frontage and the left bank of the Tidal River Nene from Wisbech to Holbeach St Matthew
  • Tidal River Nene in Wisbech
• March
• Whittlesey
  • River Nene in the Yarwell Headland and West Delph areas of Whittlesey
  • B1040 Thorney to Whittlesey Road to the South of the River Nene
• Chatteris
  • River Delph west bank Flood Defences at Benwick, Chatteris and Manea

Other built-up areas include Doddington and Wimblington, Wenny Severals, Manea, Leverington, Wisbech St Mary and Coates and Eastrea.

Neighbouring councils

Peterborough, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, South Holland, King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Guides for any emergency

• Power cut: call 105 free. Priority Services Register · Compensation calculator
• Power cuts
• First hour of a power cut
• Flooding
• Flood alerts and warnings
• Storms
• Cold weather
• Grab bag and evacuation
• Emergency Alerts
• A battery or wind-up radio keeps working in a power cut.
• All council pages in England · All UK council pages