‘Lives at risk’ Fears as flood protection wall includes a 100m hole

hBRISTOL councillors have approved a multi-million flood protection wall for Avonmouth – with a 100-metre hole in it.

The wall is part of an £80million project to protect homes and businesses along the Avon and Severn estuary from Lamplighters Marsh to the Severn crossing.

The flood protection scheme submitted jointly by the Environment Agency and the local authorities for Bristol and South Gloucestershire involves creating two new wetlands and building a long reinforced concrete wall up to 2.4 metres high along the edge of the estuary.

But a 100-metre gap in the wall at the entrance to Avonmouth docks provoked intense debate among members of a Bristol City Council planning committee who heard dire warnings from the company that runs the Port of Bristol at Avonmouth.

John Chaplin, the Bristol Port Company’s director of external affairs and special projects, told them: “On a tidal surge, sea water will pour through the gap.

“People live and work in Avonmouth and this scheme puts their lives, livelihoods and the environment at stake.”

But council officers assured the committee the wall would improve Avonmouth’s flood defences and that the gap would be closed before the next big flood.

The gap extends 30 metres either side of the aging lock gates at the entrance to Avonmouth docks.

The port will need to replace the gates before 2076, which is when the docks and Avonmouth village are likely to be affected by the next big flood, according to predictions supplied by the applicants, the committee heard.

But David Brown, chief executive of The Bristol Port Company, said those predictions were wrong and that Avonmouth would flood before 2076.

The port provided its own expert advice suggesting the village and the port could flood as early as 2026.

“Some will be thinking I am standing here to put forward a case for the Environment Agency to fund lock gates for the port,” Mr Brown told the committee.

“I can assure you this is absolutely not the case and could not be further the truth. I am purely appealing to everyone involved in this decision to exercise common sense and prudence.”

Green councillor for Southville Stephen Clarke questioned the motives of the port company, describing ports as “intensely commercial”.

Labour councillor for St George Troopers Hill Fabian Breckels wanted the decision delayed until the “lock gate issue” was resolved, but an officer said there was little chance of that happening “any time soon”.

Mr Breckels said: “I don’t think we can approve this with a thumping great hole in it.

“If there’s an extreme weather event, everything’s going to flood. I just think if we give this the nod now, the city will be laughed at.”

But Labour councillor for Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston Donald Alexander, who chaired the committee, warned they risked a costly legal challenge if they rejected the project citing a desire for the gap to be closed.

“The question is not whether we’d like a different project, it is do we like the application in front of us: does it do more good than harm,” he said.

“If it does we should approve it, otherwise we are likely to have our decision challenged.”

Mr Breckels, Mr Clarke and Green councillor for Clifton Down Clive Stevens voted against the application.

They were outvoted by five other members of the planning committee who accepted officers’ recommendations to approve the application and left officers to impose conditions.

Labour councillor for Horfield Olly Mead abstained from the vote.

South Gloucestershire Council will consider the application in February 2019.

If they reject it, the applicants can appeal.

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On a tidal surge, sea water will pour through the gap. People live and work in Avonmouth and this scheme puts their lives, livelihoods and the environment at stake.

John Chaplin of the Bristol Port Company