Flood risk drop-in

Last week local councillor Claire Young and a number of her colleagues attended an Environment Agency drop-in looking at the risk of river flooding in the Yate and Chipping Sodbury area and options for reducing it.

One of the at risk areas identified was Nibley. There they were suggesting property-level measures such as flood gates and non-return valves, as larger scale measures are not considered viable at this point.

On other sections of the river options included widening the channel and creating flood storage covering up to 20 hectares, with capacity equivalent to 80 Olympic-size swimming pools. Claire took the opportunity to discuss how this would affect properties downstream at places like Frampton Cotterell and was assured that the flood storage area at Tubbs Bottom would reduce the risk downstream.

The Environment Agency stress they are at a very early stage of their study and they do not have funding to implement any options at this stage. The majority will have to come from other public or private sources, including developers. Claire asked the agency to make the exhibition materials available on their website.