Flood scheme set to clear its last hurdle (From York Press)

Flood scheme set to clear its last hurdle

8:50am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News By Mark Stead, mark.stead@thepress.co.uk

Floods in Leeman Road in 2000

A £3.2 MILLION upgrade of York’s flood defences which is aimed at protecting hundreds of homes could clear its final hurdle next week.

City of York Council planning chiefs have recommended approving proposals by the Environment Agency for the Water End Flood Alleviation Scheme, designed to prevent a repeat of the near-disaster 12 years ago when the River Ouse reached record levels.

The flood embankments in the Leeman Road area came close to breaking point in 2000, with sandbags having to be used to bolster defences, and the agency has said climate change will only raise the risk of flooding in the future.

The scheme, which will be debated by the council’s planning committee next Thursday, will see a new 300-metre flood wall built along the crest of the Water End embankment, a demountable flood barrier installed across the entrance to Landing Lane, the existing Leeman Road bank being raised, a new 400-metre embankment between Leeman Road and Cinder Lane and the construction of two flood walls at Cinder Lane.

It would provide added protection for 393 properties, with the council providing £1 million towards the cost. If approved next week, work is due to begin before the end of the year.

The agency has said the scheme would guard against a one-in-200-year flood.

A report by council development management officer Kevin O’Connell said the work was necessary to prevent homes in the Leeman Road area being hit by flooding and had been designed in a way which would “minimise the impact on neighbouring properties”, with the design having been tweaked since the agency first produced options for the defences in 2010.

It also said a “significant number” of trees would be lost, and one of the conditions of approving the scheme should be that these are replaced elsewhere.

The former bowling green in Salisbury Road would be used as a construction compound while work is being carried out, and would be restored to its former condition once the project is completed. The existing flood defences were put in place after major flooding in the 1980s.