£12m fund to help improve city’s flood defences

THE GOVERNMENT says nearly 500 homes in Hull will be better protected from flooding in the coming years after a multi-million-pound funding package was announced.

The city, which has been hit by a number of damaging floods in recent years, will receive £11.8m to improve defences along the River Hull and extend a project that started in 2016 over a 7.5km stretch of the river.

It was revealed yesterday by Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey, inset, that 25 flood-defence schemes would benefit from the £36m in funding announced in last year’s Autumn Statement.

Other schemes include £2.9m being spent on the regeneration of the main pier at Seahouses, Berwick-uponTweed, protecting 140 properties and the town’s harbour. A total of £1.2m will go on projects to protect 370 properties along the Sud Brook and River Twyer in Gloucester. Smaller projects include work at the Eel Mires Dike Flood Alleviation Scheme in Dinnington, South Yorkshire, where £290,000 is being spent to protect 48 properties. Ms Coffey said: “This funding will benefit projects across the country from Hull to Gloucester, from Wolverhampton to the Wirral, that need an extra boost for flood defences to help our communities continue to prosper and grow in the future.

“Not only will this investment make places more resilient against flooding, but it will help the local economy, enhance the natural environment and protect important areas of culture – whether it is the homes, businesses and cultural sites in Hull to the pier in Seahouses or the natural environment in Gloucester.”

Phase one of the River Hull project started in 2016, with 39 sections of defence to be improved. Engineers last month said they were a third of the way through the £36.5m construction work which has seen defences both reinforced and newly built between the city centre and north of Stoneferry Bridge.

In the Autumn Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced £76m to be spent on flood and coastal defences around the country.

These included £36m for new schemes and £40m to boost local regeneration in deprived communities at high flood risk.