Extract from Windsor Observer 1-4-2020<\/p>\n
Royal Borough Council criticised over River Thames Scheme<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n By James Bagley – Local Democracy Reporter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 \u2013 4 – 2020<\/p>\n \u201cIT\u2019S a good day to issue bad news\u201d said a councillor who has scolded the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (RBWM) for not funding the flood defence scheme.<\/p>\n The River Thames scheme was set to protect up to 15,000 homes in areas including Datchet and Teddington to reduce the flood risk where three new flood channels would be constructed.<\/p>\n RBWM released an update on Monday explaining where the council is at with the plans which councillor Ewan Larcombe (Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury) from the National Flood Prevention Party called \u201ca typical\u201d statement.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman from RBWM said: \u201cWe and the River Thames Scheme are committed to seeing the fruition of the whole of the scheme and we are pleased that the outline business case will continue to feature the Berkshire section of the scheme.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, funding for the Berkshire scheme has not be resolved but we will continue to work with the River Thames Scheme to identify funding for this part of the scheme in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Councillor Larcombe has hit out against the council demanding them to \u201cget their act together\u201d as the \u00a3640 million flood defence scheme was meant to be already fully funded with work commencing in 2023 at the earliest.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe council has filibustered for months and I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve been honest and open about what the situation is.<\/p>\n \u201cThey kept saying that they agreed it all back in September\/October 2017, but what have they done since?<\/p>\n \u201cThey had years and years to fix this situation and they certainly haven\u2019t kept me informed. I believe that I\u2019ve been deliberately kept in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n On February 2020, councillor Larcombe warned Tory cabinet members that the cost of the scheme could go up by \u00a31 million a week<\/strong> <\/span>if the council\u2019s contribution isn\u2019t completed.<\/p>\n Surrey County Council secured \u00a3237 million on their part of the scheme back last November whereas RBWM has only put in \u00a310 million out of its \u00a352.66 million contribution.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A spokesperson from the Royal Borough said they can only put in their full part if government allowed local authorities a flood precept on council tax like the adult social care precept.<\/p>\n Datchet and surrounding areas were heavily flooded back in 2014 where approximately 1,000 homes were affected.<\/p>\n END<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Extract from Windsor Observer 1-4-2020 Royal Borough Council criticised over River Thames Scheme By James Bagley – Local Democracy Reporter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 \u2013 4 – 2020 \u201cIT\u2019S a good day to issue bad news\u201d said a councillor who has scolded the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (RBWM) for not funding the flood defence scheme. …. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361,"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flooding.london\/rts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}