Extra £12m of funding for flood defences
AN EXTRA £12 million will be used to build on essential flood protection and resilience work in Hebden Bridge.
The funding boost is part of the Government’s new multi-billion-pound investment across the country, including an immediate cash injection to speed up flood scheme construction.
In Calderdale, the council and the Environment Agency will use the money to boost their joint work on the Hebden Bridge flood alleviation scheme, which aims to help protect around 150 homes and 200 businesses.
This will also contribute to local economic regeneration and the ongoing work to tackle climate change.
Councillor Scott Patient, Calderdale Council’s cabinet member for climate change and environment, said: “This is a very welcome boost for the continued hard work of the council, the Environment Agency, our partner organisations and the community to help protect local residents and businesses from the threat of flooding.
“The additional £12 million will enable the Hebden Bridge flood alleviation scheme to go ahead with more confidence, and possibly also free up money for other elements of our programme.
“Whilst we are always proud of our community’s remarkable response to flooding, on top of the current challenges of Covid-19, the level of response required was no longer sustainable. We have been pushing Government to provide the vital funding needed to provide significant protection.”
In February 2020, Calderdale was severely affected by its third major flood in just eight years. The council has been lobbying Government to recognise the huge scale of risk that the borough continues to face.
The figures in the aftermath of Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis in February suggested that over a third of the homes and more than half of the businesses which flooded were in the Calder Valley.
‘The additional £12 million will enable the scheme to go ahead with more confidence’
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