Have your say on flooding scheme (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Have your say on flooding scheme

4:00pm Saturday 25th July 2009 in Local By Cadisha Brown

FLOOD victims in Bewdley are being invited to a meeting with the Environment Agency to discuss a flood alleviation scheme.

Two years after the storm which flooded 50 homes on the town’s Queensway estate, the Environment Agency is looking at ways to reduce the risk of future flooding.

As a first step, the agency is producing a computer model of Riddings Brook, from its source at Trimpley down to where it meets the River Severn, below the Bewdley School and Sixth Form Centre. The computer model can then be used to assess the effectiveness of storing water upstream above the estate, as well as for any other future works.

Gill Holland, chairman of Bewdley Residents’ Flood Committee, said: “It’s been a long wait for those who were flooded and, in the meantime, people have been living in fear that it will happen again.

“If the storm of June 19 had been the only torrential rain that summer, we would have had the agency’s undivided attention but, from July 20 onwards, thousands more homes were flooded to the south and west of us due to more extreme rainfall and Queensway has just had to wait its turn.

“Now that the work is under way, the Riddings Brook Flood Group has invited the agency’s mapping and data team to come and meet the flooded community.

“They will talk about the sort of information they’re looking for and see some of the photos and video clips the group has collected of the flooding.

“The more evidence we can supply to the agency, the better the case that can be made for a flood alleviation scheme,” she added.

The meeting will be held next Monday at the Community Centre on Shaw Hedge Road at 7pm.