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West Midlands Liberal Democrats |
Decision On DEFRA Flood Defence Grants For Tenbury Expected Soon
February 18, 2010 11:26 AM
Richard Burt, who last year warned local councils that they needed to pull together with other agencies to make any progress on flood defences, said that the town now faces a nervous wait to see if Tenbury would benefit from a bid for the next round of Defra grants to protect individual homes from flooding.
Richard alerted councillors to the £5 million Defra fund last September after they missed out on the first round of grants, saying they could not afford to do so this year when the remainder of the money would be allocated through the Environment Agency.
A decision on the bid, which could provide individual grants to protect many of the 130 properties affected in the town, is expected to be announced within the next few weeks by the Environment Agency.
Richard said: "This could be great news for many individual property owners in Tenbury, but may not cover those who have cellars liable to flooding.
"An application to the Midlands Flood Defence Committee for extra funds from the Midlands Flood Levy could cover any excluded buildings.
"This is the kind of joined-up thinking I have been advocating for so long to get the ball rolling on some flood protection for Tenbury. It's a shame it took a kick up the backside from the Audit Commission to finally get things moving.
"The longer term goal must still be to get permanent flood defences, but even with a reduced cost of £4.2million for the scheme, there is no prospect of funding under a Labour or Conservative government.
"I have always argued for a National Emergency Plan to protect flood victims, and spoke in favour of a Liberal Democrat Conference motion calling for £1billion to be spent on flood defences for towns like Tenbury.
"Until we get a change of heart in government, the best way forward is to work together to protect as many individual properties in Tenbury as it is possible to do."
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