Regional Flood and Coastal Committee support flood alleviation
Over £20 million of public investment has been pledged to reduce flood risk across the English Severn and Wye catchment over the next 6 years.
Yesterday (Tuesday 13 January 2015), members of the Environment Agency’s English Severn and Wye Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) pledged approximately £6 million over the next 6 years towards flood alleviation works across the catchment.
The Local Levy funds pledged by the RFCC members will support national Grant in Aid funds that were announced by the Government in December 2014. This local investment has helped provisionally secure a further £15 million of national funding over the next 6 years.
This will allow schemes to progress across the English Severn and Wye catchment, including:
- a £1.2 million flood alleviation scheme in Much Wenlock which will involve creating flood storage to reduce the risk of flooding to 142 properties
- the £3 million Badsey Brook Flood Alleviation Scheme will reduce the risk of flooding to approximately 290 properties along Badsey and Bunches Brook in Broadway, Childswickham and Murcot
- the £1.6 million surface water flood alleviation scheme to reduce flood risk to up to 159 properties in Whaddon, Cheltenham
- the £300,000 Bedworth Flood Alleviation scheme, which reduces the risk of flooding to 40 properties in the Delamere Road area of Bedworth
The investment will also fund a range of other flood alleviation schemes, such as upstream storage areas, improving existing and constructing new defences, tackling surface water flooding, and providing individual property level protection. There are also projects within the 6 year plan to work with communities who are at risk from rapid responding rivers, as well as undertaking schemes involving natural solutions to slow down the amount of flow entering the rivers.
The benefits of this investment over the next 6 years will reduce flood risk to over 2,900 residential properties and will prevent over £150 million in damages to businesses, infrastructure and properties over the lifetime of the defences.
English Severn and Wye Regional Flood and Coastal Committee Chair Anne Wheeler said:
The local levy funds help to finance schemes which protect smaller communities that would not otherwise be eligible for full funding, as well as enabling GiA to be spent more widely across the Severn and Wye catchment. We are grateful for the commitment of all our lead local flood authority partners, which helps ensure that residents at threat from flooding will now benefit from increased protection.
Anthony Perry, Environment Agency Area Flood Risk Manager said:
We are really pleased that this funding has been made available for capital projects and to assist communities with property protection schemes. This money will go a long way in making communities more resilient, and protecting them from the effects of flooding which we know can be devastating.
Notes to editors
More information about the committee can be found on the English Severn and Wye Regional Flood and Coastal Committee web pages.
Local Levy funding
Local councils raise Local Levy to fund works in partnership with others and local priority projects that do not qualify for central government funding.
Grant in Aid funding
In December, central government (Defra) announced a 6 year programme of funding known as capital Flood Defence Grant-in-Aid (FDGiA). This is also used to fund flood and coastal erosion risk management projects.
More information can be found on the investment programme web page.