Work starts on flood protection for 124 homes and businesses

August 17, 2015 by Southend Borough Council

Work starts on flood protection for 124 homes and businesses

Monday 17th August 2015

Work starts this week on providing flood protection to 124 homes and businesses across the Borough.

Flood specialists working for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council are about to start installing free flood-mitigation measures to the properties in the Borough as part of a flood relief scheme funded by Central Government.

The properties were surveyed by the Council’s appointed flooding engineers, UK Flood Barriers, to specify the most appropriate flood-mitigation measures for each property. A further 35 properties have applied for retrospective funding for flood-protection they have installed themselves.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has appointed engineering firm AECOM to oversee the scheme, which involves installing flood-mitigation-prevention measures, such as flood-defender doors, anti-flood airbricks, flood defender barriers and sumps and pumps.

In May, AECOM sent application packs to all known properties that sustained flooding between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 as well as properties in known flooding hotspots. Properties that met the requirements of the scheme, were surveyed between Monday 13 July and Friday 14 August.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council is using money from Defra’s Repair and Renew grant scheme, which gives an allowance of up to £5,000 on flood-mitigation measures per property affected.

Cllr Martin Terry, Executive Member for Public Protection, Waste and Transport, said: “Over the last couple of years, I have seen first-hand the utter devastation that flooding has caused to homes and businesses in the Borough. That’s why, when this financial package from Defra became available, we jumped on it and ensured that everyone who was eligible to receive assistance was aware and encouraged to apply.

“I’m delighted that so many local people and businesses have taken advantage of this opportunity to make their properties more resilient will soon start to reap the rewards of much-needed flood protection.”

The installation of all flood measures is expected to be complete by early Autumn.