Flood Control: Shrewsbury

(asked on 1st July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the risk of flooding in Shrewsbury from the River Severn.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 6th July 2021

The Environment Agency (EA) owns and operates 13 flood defence assets in the Shrewsbury area, which provide flood protection to business and communities from the River Severn and its tributaries. These existing flood risk management assets are maintained to ensure they remain operational, protecting the communities they are designed for, with dedicated teams in place to operate them 24 hours a day.

After the 2019/2020 winter foods, £605,000 was allocated to repair flood defence assets, covering both the Frankwell and Coleham flood risk management schemes which together provide protection to around 250 properties. All work has been completed and these schemes are fully operational. The EA is currently planning further maintenance work on these defences following the winter 2020/2021 floods.

Last year, the Government announced that up to £170 million would be spent to accelerate work on 22 shovel-ready flood defence schemes, to begin construction before the end of 2021/2022. This included up to £30 million for the Severn Valley Water Management Scheme located in Shrewsbury, and up to £5.4 million for a scheme combining natural flood risk management, tree planting and habitat creation to reduce flood risk and capture carbon throughout the Severn Valley.

Across the wider Severn catchment, the EA continues to progress a pilot for the government funded long term investment pathways/Adaptation Pathways, with £1.5 million secured from April 2021, for six years. This project will look ahead at least 50 years, to work out what flood defences are necessary in the long term and when they should be built to avoid unnecessary investment costs in future and missed opportunities.

The EA, along with other members of the River Severn Partnership, is currently investigating what further measures may be implemented to reduce flood risk in Shrewsbury. As well as the potential for new proposals, on which the EA is working with local partners, the role and lifespan of existing flood risk management assets with regard to climate change, is also being considered.

Reticulating Splines