Rotherham Council to call on government to provide £48 million for flood defences

Rotherham Council is set to call on the government to commit £48 million of funding for flood defences in the town.

Councillor David Sheppard proposed the notice of motion at a full council meeting yesterday (July 23), which outlined why funding is needed for flood defences after Rotherham was flooded in November 2019, affecting 135 homes and 300 businesses.

Coun Sheppard told the virtual meeting: "The impact was devastating for the 135 families whose properties were flooded, with 49 of those families still out of their homes over the Christmas period and into the New Year.

"All those affected directly with the flooding are still living with those destructive consequences to this day, and the dreadful reality of dirty water flooding into your home is both a physical and mental challenge that none of us would ever wish to face.

"Over 300 businesses were directly affected, along with our transport infrastructure, with our train station being out of action for over a week."

Councillor Sheppard told the meeting that the formula used by the Environment Agency to calculate funding is focused "almost entirely" on better protecting homes from flooding, and the current six-year funding period has "not done enough" for the people of Rotherham.

"A lot of our much-needed flood works are complicated and costly, and do not fare well on the strict cost per home protected criteria applied by the Environment Agency.

"This makes it incredible difficult, if not impossible to get the government funding we so badly need."

Seconding the motion, Councillor Stuart Sansome said that in 2012, the floods in Rotherham were "disastrous" and "devastated lives".

"I hope the people who make the decision to to provide the funding have got the courage to look the people in the eye and speak to them at six o clock in the morning like I did," he added.

Councillors voted to accept the motion, and the council will now contact the government to reiterate their stance that the funding should be committed so that flood defence works can begin.

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