Hopes grow for flood protection project

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman met with MPs, councillors and business leaders yesterday amid concern the city will remain vulnerable to the kind of flooding that devastated parts of Yorkshire in 2007 unless defences are put in place.

Instead of a single expensive scheme as was initially proposed, it is now likely that measures could be introduced in phases to make the proposal more affordable.

As a first stage, consultants have drawn up plans to rebuild two weirs on the River Aire to help lower the river level after heavy rainfall.

MPs left the meeting upbeat and hopeful that Ministers are aware of the importance of flood prevention measures in a city which narrowly escaped disaster in 2000 and 2007.

Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland said: “It was very positive that we had a delegation of Leeds MPs, leading councillors and the business community meeting the Secretary of State and the Minister responsible to discuss the need for protection from flooding in Leeds. This very clearly showed the importance of the issue.

“It was a positive meeting and it was good to get assurances that the Government realises the importance of this and I hope now the various bodies involve can work together to come up with some solutions as part of a phased plan so that we get some much needed flooding protection in place as soon as is possible”.

The initial scheme – shelved when flood defence spending was cut earlier this year – would have protected thousands of homes and businesses along a lengthy stretch of the river, but was described as a “Rolls Royce” project by Environment Minister Richard Benyon. Pressed on the issue earlier this year, he called for a “family car” solution to be produced instead to make it more affordable.