{"id":414,"date":"2020-04-10T22:14:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/?page_id=414"},"modified":"2020-04-10T22:21:25","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:21:25","slug":"rts-funding-doubts-november-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/rts-funding-doubts-november-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"RTS Funding Doubts – November 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

River Thames Scheme Funding Doubts – Nov 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

[An extract from] Surrey live – 6\/11\/2019 – by Rebecca Curley<\/p>\n

Funding doubts over River Thames scheme meant to prevent 15,000 homes from flooding<\/p>\n

It includes properties in Staines, Egham Hythe, Chertsey, Laleham and Shepperton which could, in theory, flood at any time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions still remain over how a vital scheme meant to prevent 15,000 homes from flooding will be funded.<\/p>\n

It includes properties in Staines, Egham Hythe, Chertsey, Laleham and Shepperton which could, in theory, flood at any time.<\/p>\n

The question mark hangs over whether or not a \u201csignificant financial contributor\u201d in the funding of theRiver Thames\u00a0flood alleviation scheme can secure the cash.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) has been asked to contribute \u00a352.66 million to the \u00a3640 million flood defence works.<\/span><\/p>\n

But so far it has only secured \u00a310m and needs to wait for legislation to be passed on a possible flooding precept to secure the rest of the cash.<\/span><\/p>\n

It can only put forward the full \u00a352.66m it has been asked to if the Government allows councils to collect a flooding precept similar to the social care precept, a council spokeswoman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrey County Council approved its contribution of \u00a3237m at a cabinet meeting last week.<\/p>\n

This is part of an overall investment by the council of \u00a3270m to deliver Surrey\u2019s Flood Risk Management Strategy.<\/p>\n

The success of the River Thames scheme is said to be \u201ccrucial\u201d to the county, according to cabinet papers, due to the \u201clarge number of Surrey residents and businesses affected\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Lower Thames floodplain between Datchet in Berkshire and Teddington in West London is the most populated undefended floodplain in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Over 15,000 properties are at risk in a flood with a 1% probability of flooding occurring in any given year, councillors were told.<\/p>\n

Between Datchet, part of RBWM, and\u00a0Shepperton, covered by SCC, the floodplain widens to over 2km in some places with parts of Datchet, Wraysbury,\u00a0Staines, Egham Hythe, Chertsey, Laleham and Shepperton all at risk of flooding.<\/p>\n

The River Thames scheme will create three flood alleviation channels along the River Thames and improve flow capacity at three weirs.<\/p>\n

It will also create four new country parks and cycle paths and footpaths.<\/p>\n

Current costs estimate it will need \u00a3640m of investment which will save \u00a32.58 billion of flood damage over the life of the scheme.<\/p>\n

The Government has confirmed \u00a360m of funding with grant aid worth \u00a3240m from the Environment Agency and Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) being committed in principle.<\/p>\n

Surrey County Council is the biggest contributing local council looking to borrow \u00a3237m to fund it.<\/p>\n

RBWM has been asked to put forward \u00a352.66m. It has previously agreed to raise \u00a310m in capital funding, but the \u00a3500,000 per year for ongoing maintenance and any additional capital costs would require legislation to be passed to allow it to raise the case as a precept separate to the council tax.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokeswoman from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead said: \u201cWe have committed to helping ensure this important project goes ahead with \u00a310 million of capital funding to be released to the scheme from April 2020 over the next four years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, to raise the additional funds needed to bridge the shortfall, we must have the legislative changes required to allow us to collect a flooding precept alongside the council tax.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are calling on the government to make this vital change to legislation and unlock the funding which will ensure we can keep all our residents safe from the perils of flooding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not known at this stage what will happen if RBWM cannot raise the extra cash.<\/p>\n

A new group is being set up to oversee delivery of the River Thames Scheme chaired by SCC leader Tim Oliver.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the SCC cabinet meeting on October 29, he said RBWM was a \u201csignificant financial contributor\u201d along with Surrey\u2019s borough and district authorities involved.<\/p>\n

Cllr Oliver said: \u201cThe county council will be the lead authority and coordinate activity and oversee activity not only of the Environment Agency but of all the other authorities who have an involvement in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some technicalities in terms of the various bodies that will be set up to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is a lot of our residents\u2019 money that is being committed to this scheme and we must therefore make sure that we are aware at all times on how it is progressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent report by CIPFA (Chartered Institue of Public Finance and Accountancy) dated July 2019 and presented to RBWM’s overview and scrutiny panel in October recommended that a “fundamental review of the financial resilience” of the borough is needed after identifying “wider financial and governance issues” at the council.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other funding is being sourced from Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (\u00a331.96m – confirmed), Surrey Local Enterprise Partnership (\u00a32.5m – confirmed), Thames Water (\u00a32.5m – agreed in principle) and other local authorities including RBWM, Surrey, Spelthorne, Runnymede and Elmbridge\u00a0\u00a0(\u00a36.17m – secured and being spent).<\/p>\n

External link to Surrey live source<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Local link: River Thames Scheme Funding Doubts – November 2019<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

END OF PAGE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

River Thames Scheme Funding Doubts – Nov 2019 [An extract from] Surrey live – 6\/11\/2019 – by Rebecca Curley Funding doubts over River Thames scheme meant to prevent 15,000 homes from flooding It includes properties in Staines, Egham Hythe, Chertsey, Laleham and Shepperton which could, in theory, flood at any time. Questions still remain over ….  Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/414"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/414\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}