Pressure on funds for flood defences

LEEDS: The next phase of £112m flood defences gets under way today as politicians have pledged to petition the Government to ensure funding is secured to protect hundreds of homes and business.

The second stage of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme will see defences built on the River Aire upstream of the railway station.

THE NEXT phase of £112m flood defences gets under way today as politicians have pledged to petition the Government to ensure funding is secured to protect hundreds of homes and business across Leeds.

The second stage of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme will see defences built on the River Aire upstream of the city’s railway station as part of an over-arching project to prevent a repeat of the devastating deluge which happened just over four years ago on Boxing Day 2015.

Leeds Council is working with the Environment Agency on the scheme which aims to invest £112.1m in flood prevention measures for areas upstream of Leeds city centre, to protect a total of 1,048 homes and 474 businesses.

Council leader Judith Blake said that while the next phase of the scheme was vital to provide protection for communities along the so-called Kirkstall Corridor, more funding needed to be secured to ensure the whole city had adequate defences.

Coun Blake said: “This is the first step of a two-step process which we are determined to see completed in full.

“We continue to call on the Government to provide the remaining funding or meet with us to discuss options so we can ensure all communities vulnerable to flooding from the River Aire have the highest possible level of flood defences in place, and our city is as resilient as we can make it to the increasing threat of extreme weather events due to climate change.”

The first step of the scheme’s second phase will cost £87m to protect against a one-in-100 chance of flooding in any given year along an five-mile stretch including three key areas – Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, Kirkstall Abbey and Kirkstall Meadows.

These works are expected to be complete by the winter of 2022.

The second stage involves creating flood storage at Calverley, making use of an existing flood plain, and works at Apperley Bridge, which will bring the level of protection up to a one-in-200 chance of flooding in any given year.

That would be the equivalent to the Boxing Day floods that hit areas such as Kirkstall in December 2015.

Works start today in the Wellington Bridge Street area upstream of the city centre, on a defence wall running along the Aire.

The impact of Storm Eva in December 2015 affected 3,355 properties in Leeds, including 672 commercial businesses.

The direct cost to the city was an estimated £36.8m, with the cost to the wider city region put at more than £500m.

The flood defence project has received an initial £65m from the Government as well as funding from Leeds Council, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Network Rail.

The city council maintained that it remains committed to examining all options to secure the funding to deliver the scheme in full.

The work follows the completion of the first phase of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme in October 2017, where defences were installed along the River Aire in the city for the first time.

The project includes a flagship programme to use nature to help slow water flows and combat climate change, including the creation of new woodland.

A Government spokesman said: “Since the floods, we have invested more than £35m in a scheme to better protect the city centre and have committed a further £65m for a second phase to protect a wider area including the Kirkstall Road.”

We continue to call on the Government to provide the remaining funding. Coun Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council.