Leader calls for review of Shropshire flood defences after latest devastation
Shropshire Council's leader wants an Environment Agency review of flood defences throughout the county, after communities across the county were hit hard for the third year running.
As flood waters started to recede, residents and businesses in Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Melverley, and throughout the Ironbridge Gorge, have been left counting the cost of yet more major flooding.
With the threat to people's lives now passed the attention has turned to efforts that can prevent or minimise the impact of future flooding.
Shropshire Council's leader Lezley Picton has said she will be asking the Environment Agency to review the protection afforded to communities throughout the county and along the Severn – including Coleham in Shrewsbury, and further down throughout the Ironbridge Gorge.
It comes after Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies said that defences for communities in the gorge need to be reconsidered.
Mark Barrow, Shropshire Council's director of place and chairman of the River Severn Partnership, said they were expecting to see designs for some water retention schemes that could help in the coming months.
It came as Councillor Picton said there was concern over the economic and mental tolls that successive years of flooding were having on county residents.
She said: "We just need the Environment Agency to look again. What is the situation?"
She added: "What we are seeing this time is that if you have been flooded out three years in a row that is tough on your wellbeing. There is an economic cost but the human cost is significant and we need to get this sorted."
Mr Barrow said a range of short, medium, and long-term measures would be needed to ensure future protection for residents.
He added that there was fresh hope in some of the initiatives being considered, adding: "Some designs for some water retention schemes and feasibility work is being done and we hope to get this from the Environment Agency in Spring.
"There is also some progress for slowing the flow of the water in Wales coming forward from the Government."
