YORK SET FOR £100K OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO TACKLE FLOOD RISK FROM HEAVY RAIN (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

YORK SET FOR £100K OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO TACKLE FLOOD RISK FROM HEAVY RAIN

March 19, 2010 12:00 AM

York will receive £100,000 of funding to help reduce the risk of flooding caused by sudden heavy rain the Government have announced today.

The funding will be used to prepare a Surface Water Management Plan for the central York area which will allow the Council to work with partners to map areas at risk and identify where action can be taken to improve surface water drainage.

The announcement follows a successful bid from City of York Council to Defra's £5m Early Action Fund for Tackling Surface Water Flood Risk.

The fund offered grants of between £20,000 and £100,000 to Local Authorities to help them prepare for flooding and plan long term actions to reduce the risk of flooding.

The bids were approved for submission by Liberal Democrat Leader of City of York Council, Councillor Andrew Waller at a meeting in January.

Welcoming the announcement Councillor Waller said, "The Council has been investing in solving the problems caused by surface water drainage (becks and other water courses filling up with sudden downpours) which have now been recognised by central government as needing additional resource."

"The success of the application from York show how highly regarded officers are in terms of developing solutions."

"As the city's representative on the Regional Flood Defence Committee I have been pressing for more funding for flood defences, and the public are now as much aware of the problems that rainstorms bring as the river flooding."

The funding follows the Council's decision to allocate £200,000 to continue surface water drainage works as part of the Liberal Democrat budget, which was approved last month.

The funding contained in the budget will be used to carry out work to improve surface water drainage at a number of locations across the city.