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Driffield Post

High-tech help to combat flooding

Published Date: 04 September 2009
By Staff Copy
 
 
EFFORTS to maintain flood defences in the Driffield area are being boosted by new high-tech equipment as part of a multi-million pound investment programme across the region.
Environment Agency engineers are set to carry out repairs to a number of sites in the district over the coming year during a £2.6million maintenance scheme across the East Riding.

And they will be helped in their fight to keep the water at bay by using a new remote-controlled mower, which they hope will help them to find problem areas in parts of the defences they could not previously get to.

Agency engineer Angie McKinney said: “The robotic mower has really improved the way we carry out routine maintenance work.

“Our staff can work safely on top of the flood banks, using the remote control to make sure tricky areas are kept free of vegetation.

“By using it we can spot potential defects in flood defences much more easily and prevent them from becoming serious problems.

“This will save us a lot of money in remedial works and help to keep homes and businesses safe.”

A number of sites in the Driffield area will see maintenance works carried out on flood defences during the coming year.

The areas include:

l Repairs to damaged banks on Driffield Canal, Kelk Beck, and Frodingham Beck, near Driffield, and Mickley Dyke between Frodingham and Brandesburton

l Work to prevent an embankment leaking at Old Howe, Foston

l Resealing a flood wall on the River Hull at Tickton

l A weed control programme which includes sections of the Foulness, Beverley and Barmston Drain, and the upper River Hull.

The machine is designed to be used on steep-sided banks where normal tractors and mowers cannot safely work to tackle damage caused by vehicles, burrowing animals or the growth of young trees and shrubs.

Around a third of the agency’s total maintenance budget for Yorkshire in 2009-10 is being spent in the East Riding, with a further £12million going on specific flood projects in the county.


 
The full article contains 349 words and appears in Driffield Post newspaper.
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