More money agreed for flood defences in Calderdale
Senior councillors agreed to accept the money to help fund schemes over the coming two years
As the tenth anniversary of some devastating flooding approaches, a further £2 million will be coming to help Calderdale try and limit the impact of severe weather on the borough.
Senior councillors agreed to accept the money to help fund schemes over the coming two years, and also agreed spending of £500,000 to pay for schemes being undertaken already in 2024-25.
To deliver the latter £582,000 – from Flood Defence Grant in Aid (FDGiA) – has already been secured.
And Calderdale Council Cabinet councillors also agreed to sums expected in the next two years, £736,000 in 2025-26 and £1.29 million in 2026-27, from either DGGiA or and Yorkshire Region Flood and Coastal Committee local levy allocations.
The council’s Deputy Leader – and Cabinet member for Climate Action and Housing – Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said the funding was very welcome.
“It’s welcoming money into the local authority, which we are always very, very happy to do.
“It feels prescient at ten years on from Storm Desmond and Storm Eva, the flooding and storm events that caused so much damage and problems to more or less every ward in Calderdale.
“And it is five years since Storm Ciara, as well as countless near-misses and surface water issues along the way.
“The fact is our unique terrain, steep valleys and moorlands makes us ever more susceptible to this, so we’re really happy to accept this money ,” he said.
Parts of Calderdale were devastated by the events referred to, on Boxing Day 2015 and February 2020.
Councillors heard that to combat this evolving risk, the borough, through multi-agency partnership work, has made “significant strides” in addressing flooding and climate change by securing £133 million to fund initiatives focused on strengthening defences, implementing natural flood management, improving infrastructure resilience, and building community resilience.
Coun Patient said schemes at Todmorden, Mytholmroyd, Brighouse and suite of natural flood management schemes ranging from landowner grants to leaky dams were all playing their part.
Coun Sarah Courtney (Lab, Calder) said extra funding for schemes which helped secure people and businesses, helping Calderdale to thrive, was welcome.
It was worth noting that as well as the big schemes there was some funding for smaller scale but important drainage issues across the borough, said Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town).
“Which is going to continue to be an important part of our flood alleviation work because of the amount of run-off we get from intensive rain,” he said.
As well as in the valley bottoms, this included some impacts higher up where damaged or poor drains had led to flooding risk for some properties, said Coun Swift.
“As we continue to face climate disruption, I suspect we will need to keep pressing for those things as well as big ones,” he said.