Shropshire gets just £2.5 million to tackle flooding
Shropshire is to receive just £2.5 million of a £2 billion-plus Government cash pot to tackle flooding across the UK.
Just £712,000 of that amount will be handed over straight away - with the rest not available until 2021 and only after a full business case has been submitted.
Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Bridgnorth were among areas of the Severn flooded in February – but none will receive immediate help or financial aid.
By contrast, more than £160 million is to be spent in the Central and East Midlands area , which includes Birmingham, Leicester and Derby.
£712,000 will be invested straight away at Shyte Brook in Much Wenlock, with a further £500,000 after 2021.
The 2021 money includes £138,000 in Much Wenlock towards a £168,000 scheme to alleviate flooding at Hunters Gate. A total of £179,000 will go towards a £329,000 scheme in Pudding Brook, Cleobury Mortimer, and £72,500 will be put towards a £150,000 project on the River Severn in Shrewsbury.
In Wesley Brook, Shifnal, £272,000 has been earmarked towards a £532,000 scheme to protect 85 households. And in Telford & Wrekin, a combined £226,000 could be given to schemes in Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge to protect 80 homes.
In Church Stretton, the Government will give just £50,000 towards a £500,000 scheme; but in Westbury it will meet the costs almost in full of a £66,000 project to protect 10 homes.
Shropshire Rivers is also to be given £280,000 towards a £470,000 scheme called 'Slow The Flow'.
Smaller projects totalling nearly £80,000 and protecting single homes have been announced in places including Aston, near Wem; Bitterley, Coton Hill, Culmington, Pant Glas near Oswestry; and Belton.
Just over the Shropshire border, nearly £2 million is to be given in 2021 towards a £2.6 million flood alleviation scheme at the River Lugg in Leominster. It is hoped it will protect 830 homes from flooding.
The government insists its investment in Shropshire will help protect nearly 550 homes.
Most of the investment will go into Much Wenlock, where £712,000 will be invested straight away towards an ongoing £1.34 million project to alleviate flooding at Shyte Brook. A further £500,000 will be pumped in after 2021, protecting 170 households.
For the other Shropshire schemes announced, the cash will not be available for at least seven years.
Although it is only a small piece of the national pie, Shropshire's share of the flood work cash was today welcomed as "great news".
Despite only being awarded £2.5 million out of more than £2 billion nationally, David Edwards, flood and water manager for Shropshire Council, said the authority had been successful in netting cash for every scheme it had bid for.
He said the council had been working in partnership with the Environment Agency and other organisations to try to manage the risk of flooding and had submitted a number of bids over the past year. "This funding is crucial for the management of flood risk within Shropshire and will bring real benefit to those affected," he said.
"It is great news to see that the Government's indicative six-year investment programme features all of the schemes for which bids were placed. As well as progressing these schemes we must now continue our hard work in securing funding from other sources so that we can protect more properties from flooding," he added.
The national spending on flood defences includes major investments in areas such as the Humber Estuary, where £80 million will be spent, and £196 million for a programme in the Thames Estuary.
Ministers are also committing to spend £15.5 million on flood defences in Somerset over the next six years, which they hope will benefit 7,000 properties, including £4.2 million on the Somerset Levels and Moors which were badly hit by flooding last winter.
The Government has previously come under fire for its flood defence funding, with critics warning that not enough was being spent to protect homes and businesses from the increased risk of flooding.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: "The projects we are announcing today will protect some of the country's most at-risk locations."
Officials said the six-year programme would help prevent more than £30 billion of economic damage.
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