Hundreds of properties were flooded over the weekend due to inadequate urban drainage and ‘capital rationing’ for river defences, according to the Environment Agency.
David King, the EA’s director of water management, said that around 700 properties flooded in the Midlands and Yorkshire last week following heavy rainfall. Causes were either due to surface water problems or because river defences had not been built.
‘We’ve effectively got in place a system where capital for new defences is being rationed. I’m having to turn down bids for schemes with a benefit-to-cost ratio of 6:1.’
He acknowledged, however, that the rainfall was ‘very, very intense’, with two to three inches falling in less than 24 hours, flooding around 300 homes in the Witton area of Birmingham. Disruption to road networks included the closure of the A59, a key east-west route across North Yorkshire, after 100t of material slipped from a hillside. A further assessment of the road and hillside was due to be carried out by the county’s highways officers, once the water standing on the hillside had drained away.
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