Flood funding fears dismissed

The Environment Agency is planning a £17million alleviation scheme to give greater protection to the town following the flooding disaster of September 2008.

But residents were alarmed earlier this week when Agency Chief Executive Dr Paul Leinster said communities and businesses would have to contribute to investment in programmes.

However, Morpeth Project Manager Phil Welton said the organisation has no intention of seeking public contributions for the proposed scheme and the business case for national funding is progressing well.

"I want to make it very clear that we are not going to be asking the residents of Morpeth for money. We don't want to worry people unnecessarily," he said.

"There may be opportunities for potential contributions from big businesses who want to enhance the scheme and we do want to look at other sources of funding, but that is not going down to the level of asking the people of Morpeth to use their own money.

"The scheme is progressing really well at the moment. We are preparing the business case and that will be scrutinised like all schemes nationally, but we are still aiming to start work on site next year."

Speaking at a Flood and Coastal Risk Management conference in Telford, Dr Leinster said spending on flood projects is at record levels, with £629m set aside this year, and that while continued Government investment is important, there is a need to find other sources of funding and increased contributions from those who will benefit from work.

Examples included a supermarket development in Hereford, where the operator contributed £2m to a flood project as part of planning conditions, a community in East Hanney, which built its own minor scheme, and an area in Bardsey where landowners and residents set up a trust to raise £2.2million for a project that did not score highly enough as a priority for funding.

Mr Welton said: "The Chief Executive made a statement about needing to find alternative ways of funding schemes and he is absolutely right because we are in difficult times.

"Going forward it is going to be more difficult so we need to look at alternatives.

"We would be looking towards big businesses in flood plains, which really should contribute towards flood defences if they are being protected.

"We are not talking about individual residents in Morpeth having to fund their own protection.

"In some areas of the country local people have raised funds, but that is really where schemes are well down the priority list and Morpeth is not that sort of case.

"We have a strong case for a flood alleviation scheme in Morpeth and it meets the national criteria."

However, residents are being encouraged to install their own flood protection measures in individual properties, such as airbrick covers and floodboards for doors and windows.

The Agency has recently added an extra resource for people wishing to keep a close watch on river levels with on-line data from monitoring stations.

The information will be updated daily, or more frequently during flooding incidents, to help people decide when to put their flood plans into action.

Data is available for rivers and coastal areas around the country, including from stations in Mitford, Hartburn, Nunnykirk, Middleton Bridge, Stamfordham and Ponteland.

Head of Flood Incident Management Craig Woolhouse said: "Our new service is there to help people, communities and businesses make informed decisions about how to respond to potential flooding.

"It will also be a valuable source of up-to-date information for boaters, surfers and other water users."

Work is ongoing to finalise the business case for the Morpeth flood alleviation scheme.

The Environment Agency has appointed Birse as its contractor to construct the scheme, consisting of town centre defences and an upstream floodwater storage reservoir, if funding is approved.

Work will also be carried out to burns to ensure defences are up to the same standard of protection as the main project.

Officials are hopeful that time can be shaved off the expected construction period of the project to bring forward its completion date, due in late 2013.