Organisations working to protect Tenbury Wells against future flooding
The Worcestershire town was severely flooded last month, after the Kyre Brook burst its banks and caused a wall to collapse
Organisations say they are all working to try and do what they can to make sure the Worcestershire town of Tenbury Wells is protected from future flooding events.
The Kyre Brook burst its banks and caused a wall to collapse in November following Storm Bert, leading to homes and businesses in the centre being flooded.
A drop-in event was held yesterday (16 December) to give the community an update on the situation and the work ongoing regarding the wall, with the Environment Agency, Worcestershire County Council, and Tenbury Town Council some of those in attendance.
Worcestershire county councillor for the town, David Chambers, says they understand how those who have been impacted feel, and they’re working on plans to make sure the community is protected from flooding moving forward.
He said: "I'm desperate that the businesses realise that we are doing everything we possibly can for them right now, and I understand completely how they feel.
"There's currently some sandbags in place (where the wall was), and I hope they're going to be replaced by very large substantial concrete blocks.
"This is for two reasons, one is for safety, and the other is it will act as some kind of defence, so it will help in that situation should we have another flood before we have that wall rebuilt."
Plans for a flood defence scheme to be built in the area are in place, but are currently on hold due to a gap in funding.
Charles Chandler is the Environment Agency area flood risk manager for the West Midlands, and he says it's important people stay alert to flooding risks while they continue to work on the flood defence plan.
"Tenbury's a beautiful town, but sadly it does have a relatively high level of flood risk, as we've seen in the recent flooding," he said.
"The next steps for the Tenbury flood risk management scheme is all about securing funding, and we've progressed that as far as we can to-date.
"We continue to work with the community to see what we can do to support them into the future."
The mayor of Tenbury Wells, Robert Perrin, has also praised the community for coming together and supporting each other in the way they have done following the latest flooding, saying they want to make sure "this will not happen again."