Funding secured for flood defences

Funding has been secured for a flood defence scheme in Worcestershire after years of campaigning and repeated flooding.

Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire, has received a letter from flooding minister Emma Hardy confirming the funds for Severn Stoke, just days after the project was threatened with a shutdown.

While the exact amount is yet to be declared, Baldwin said work could start on the project as soon as the spring.

The Environment Agency has confirmed the announcement and has said it will be working with Worcestershire County Council to determine how the scheme will be delivered.

Baldwin has said the scheme was due to be cancelled at the end of last year due to a funding shortfall, so she requested the decision to be reviewed.

The Conservative MP said: "It has been difficult getting the exact amount of money - it was so close and yet so far, and I'm really pleased that everyone has worked so hard to get this over the line.

"I've been told that so far, £900,000 has been spent on all of the aspects of getting this project to where it is today and there is a commercially sensitive number which is a few multiples of that will be given to Worcestershire County Council's contractor in order to build the scheme."

Preparatory work on an embankment began in 2023, but tonnes of delivered topsoil have lain unused.

A contractor to deliver the work is yet to be confirmed, but Baldwin has said a bid has been made and final negotiations are believed to be under way.

The news has been welcomed by the Reverend Kat Mepham, of St Denys Church in the village.

She commented: "Everyone had completely given up hope, so to have the news that there will be something, it will make a huge change.

"The floods are so disruptive and take over the church most years we have to lift everything off the floor and we move up into a different area of the church. For several months last year everything was up on stilts."

While the announcement has brought a sense of hope to those living and working in Severn Stoke, in Tenbury Wells there is "no money for a hard defence scheme", Baldwin said.

"They are moving forward with property-level flood resilience - 170 property owners have put their name forward to the Environment Agency, they are having surveys done and they are going to have their own individual property protection put in place," she explained.

"I'll keep pushing for the full hard defence scheme to be built, because it is designed now, we know what's needed, it's just a question of finding the funding for that - it's the most challenging scheme in the whole of the Midlands."

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "We are pleased to confirm that funding has become available that will allow us to progress with a flood scheme at Severn Stoke.

"We are working closely with Worcestershire County Council on how this scheme will be delivered, and we will be speaking with the local community next month to go through the plan in more detail."

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