Saturday 22nd November 2014
Al Wright writes ~
For the last couple of years Wiltshire has been battered by heavy rain causing severe flooding with increasing regularity. Wiltshire Council needed £500,000 extra funds to cope with the damage created last year. With this in mind Wiltshire Council has finally produced a draft Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) almost 5 years after it received responsibility for doing this. The report is meant to highlight the areas at risk and describe how the Council is managing the issue and their future plans to control and reduce the problem areas.
The draft report states that due to a lack of flood records not all areas at risk of flooding will be present in the report and as such will not be considered for flood relief investment.
Luckily, there is currently a consultation document on www.wiltshire.gov for the public to comment on the draft LFRMS, stating if we, the residents of Wiltshire, agree with their strategy and if we have any suggestions for flood alleviation methods or records of flood information they have missed that needs adding.
Warminster ranked in the top end of areas effected by river flooding and was also effected by surface water floods. According to Defra there are 1,200 properties in Warminster at risk of flooding. In the floods over Christmas 2013 Bishopstrow was the third hardest hit in the county for properties flooded, with a tally of 20.
Do you, the residents of Warminster, think Warminster Town Council should not only be publicising the consultation opportunity on their website (to ensure the community can comment on issues effecting them) but also be providing information as to when they are going to take the advice of the 2005 Flood Report created by the Environment Agency (EA) for the town and produce a surface water flood plan to ensure the flood infrastructure can cope and that development will not increase the risk of flooding to others and also highlight areas that need upgrading to cope with the higher demand.
I believe Warminster Town Council are putting forward the Athenaeum Trust request as first in line for the CIL money from housing development in Warminster, a sum of almost £1 million pounds, so what excuse is there for not producing a Surface Water Management Plan (SWMP) to help protect the town, thus keeping it open for business and safe for all?
To read the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) draft document go to:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/wilts-local-flood-risk-manage-strategy.pdf
To comment on the above or provide flood information go to:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/localfloodriskmanagementstrategy.htm
If you think flooding does not effect you, just remember you pay for the roads, the EA, the council and insurance, which all cost more if flooding occurs, so more effective spending equals better results for all and less damage.