Concerns as anti-flood plan thrown into doubt

BUSINESS OWNERS whose livelihoods were threatened by a city’s Boxing Day floods in 2015 have voiced frustration after preferred plans to protect the city from future downpours were thrown into doubt.

The Environment Agency last week made an alternative proposal to the council’s ideal plan for Phase Two of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, which Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves said falls £47m short of what is needed.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has responded that it has already spent £33m on flood defences in Leeds and has committed a further £65m to the cause.

But businesses such as Tyrannosaurus Pets, a reptile shop in Kirkstall Road which was forced to ship its stock of animals to nine homes across the city when the flood hit, are angered over the wait for assurances.

Owner Matthew Pedder, 45, said he was not surprised by the decision of an “incompetent UK Government”. He said: “If they had done this three or four years ago it would’ve have [saved] more than that [£47m].”

While Phase One of the city’s flood scheme has been completed, opening last year, the second part is due to place more infrastructure around Kirkstall and up the River Aire.

But Environment Minister Therese Coffey said: “Our commitment to provide better flood protection to Leeds remains unchanged.”