Councils with flood-defence projects which are ready to be built, but have been put on hold by the Government, will learn of their fate in June.
Local authorities that assumed – wrongly, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – that they would receive funding in 2006/07 or 2007/08, were put on hold, pending a review (Surveyor, 16 February).
DEFRA has now written to operating authorities to inform them that this will come in June, confirming whether or not schemes which have been through the procedures can be built before 2008. This would also give councils an indication of demand for 2008/09 and 2009/10. One of the reasons for the unavailability of funds – on top of the fact that several big capital projects are taking place simultaneously – was ‘the worrying trend of overspending in 2005/06,’ David Rooke, DEFRA’s head of flood risk management, said. He promised closer monitoring.
~Lewes District Council~ rsquo;s director of planning and environmental services, ~Lindsay Frost~ believed he would not see any further funding from DEFRA for at least four years, so had halted work. The authority said that until funds were released to complete its £12M programme to strengthen river defences, the protection offered to six areas would actually be worse than it was in 2000, when the River Ouse burst its banks and flooded 800 homes. This was due to the implementation of the first two schemes under the programme. ‘It is a difficult situation to be in,’ he said.
~North Norfolk District Council~ coastal protection engineer, Brian Farrow, bemoaned the fact that ‘because of DEFRA’s overspending on schemes which have overrun their budgets, we are paying the price’. North Norfolk’s £8M scheme to upgrade its seawall at Cromer was ready and waiting to go. But Rachel Lewis, ~North Somerset Council~'s project manager for a £7.5M sea defence scheme at Weston-super-Mare, also put on ice, said: 'Anything which speeds up us getting our funding is welcome.’
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