Flood risk money (From Witney Gazette)

Flood risk money

8:06am Friday 1st February 2008 in Witney

MEMBERS of the Thames Regional Flood Defence Committee have agreed a fund of £10m to be spent on local flood risk management projects over the next year.

The money is a £1m increase on the previous year, and will fund projects across the River Thames area, including Oxfordshire, London, Hertfordshire, Surrey, and Berkshire, as well as parts of Essex, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. Last year, £174,000 was spent on flood repairs and modelling at Osney Wharf, in Oxford, by the local defence committee, which funds projects not deemed a national priority by the Environment Agency.

The money comes in addition to the funding of a £9m flood alleviation scheme for Banbury, which also missed out on national funding, and is now expected to be completed in 2012.

The money for the defence committee is raised from a levy placed on the local councils involved. The committee will decide how much money to spend in Oxfordshire for 2008/09 when it sets in budget in April.