Oxfordshire flood homes to get £342k help (From Witney Gazette)

Oxfordshire flood homes to get £342k help

6:10am Thursday 25th June 2009 in Headlines

HOMES at risk of flooding in Oxfordshire are in line to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds of Government cash to help protect them.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) today announced Oxfordshire councils will share £342,000 to reduce the danger of flood damage to 60 homes across the county.

The cash will be spent on a variety of measures to make the properties “more resilient” to a repeat of the floods that devastated parts of the county in 2007.

Defra revealed Oxford City Council will receive a grant of £119,700 to protect 21 homes, West Oxfordshire District Council will get £171,000 to protect 30 homes and Vale of White Horse District Council will receive £51,300 to protect nine homes.

The homes that are likely to be offered cash for improvements have already been identified by the district and city councils, following surveys to establish which properties would benefit most.

The locations were not publicly available last night.

A Defra spokesman said the owners of the properties earmarked could be contacted in coming weeks.

Across England, £3m is being offered to protect up to 593 properties.

A further £2m will eventually be made available under the Flood Protection Grant Scheme set up as part of the Government’s response to Sir Michael Pitt’s review of the 2007 floods.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “We had an overwhelming response to the grant scheme from local authorities.

This is only the first round of grants and we’ll be reviewing the money available for the second round with a view to providing even more funding to protect people’s property.”