Couple facing £5.5m bill to fix flood wall
A COUPLE face a bill of up to £5.5million to repair a broken flood defence wall that puts their home at risk of falling into a river.
Johnny and Belinda Boylan were left shattered less then a year after they bought the property in Arundel, West Sussex, in 2015 when the wall crumbled into the river during a flood, taking half their garden with it.
The three-bed terraced house – valued at £500,000 – is now in danger of collapsing.
Despite repairing damage to the wall two weeks before the collapse, the Environment Agency said the couple would have to completely rebuild it themselves, which could cost up to £5.5million.
Mystery
Filmmaker Johnny cannot afford the repairs and is concerned his property will be pulled into the river Arun.
Johnny, 63, and Belinda, 55, married last June, two months after she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Johnny said: “Without any explanation it all collapsed one night and, along with it, our lives.
“It is a mystery as to why this happened, it could have been caused when the Environment Agency carried out repairs and changed the dynamic of the wall.
“We have been living on the edge of the river in Arundel for two years now with pretty much no help from anyone. We can’t repair it, we can’t afford it.”
The Environment Agency said repair work could cost between £1.8million and £5.5million and offered the couple £200,000 towards the bill.
The Boylans said the wall was not included in the deeds of the property.
They added that there was no indication it was part of the purchased land until the collapse.
An Environment Agency spokesman said: “After the unfortunate damage to the privately-owned river wall at one property in Arundel, the Environment Agency has investigated how many other properties could be affected by flooding if river water should come through the wall.
“Based on the possible 19 properties which might be flooded, using Treasury guidelines for allocating central government money for flood defences, the Environment Agency calculates it could justify £175,000, plus £25,000 to remove emergency defences temporarily installed, as a contribution to a properly engineered repair to the river wall.”