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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an urgent assessment on the repeated flooding to Riverside Drive, in Bolton South East constituency.

The River Irwell at Kearsley Flood Risk Management Scheme, which covers the communities of Prestolee and Stoneclough in Bolton, remains a priority project for the Environment Agency (EA) and its partners given the devastating floods which affected the lives of residents in December 2015 and February 2020. The EA has previously detailed (under PQ23256) a number of significant engineering challenges which have been revealed following ground investigation studies. The project team continue to work through these challenges with the EA’s consultants and contractors, in order to define a preferred option. The findings will have an impact on cost, construction method, and disturbance to residents during construction. In response to this, the project team continue to carefully weigh up, through analysis and design workshops with consultants and partners, the most effective method of reducing flood risk within the area. The project team will meet the Riverside Drive Flood Action Group in November to be available for questions and answers, and will ensure that Yasmin Qureshi MP is offered a pre-briefing.