£1.6m flood pond set to protect businesses

AROUND 70 companies on the northern edge of Sheffield are now receiving additional protection from flooding, after a £1.6m scheme was completed at Thorncliffe Business Park.

A large pond which can hold 27,000 cubic metres of water –

approximately the same amount of water needed to fill 23 Olympic swimming pools – will contain water during floods.

It is thought that the work will also help households downstream in Chapeltown, one of the areas which was badly affected by the floods of June 2007.

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The flood prevention scheme is a joint project between the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee and Mountcity Group, the owners of Thorncliffe Business Park.

Defence committee chairman Arthur Barker said: "It is good to see a business park owner appreciating and taking action to reduce the risk of flooding to their business.

"The YRFDC is pleased that it has been able to support Ken Atkinson and the Mountcity Group in achieving this."

Ken Atkinson, director of Mountcity Group, said the scheme had been a "very challenging project" and added: "Mountcity Group has, over the last 10 years, invested in excess of 20m at Thorncliffe Park, home to 160 businesses providing 2,000 jobs in Chapeltown.

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"This investment and jobs were in jeopardy without a comprehensive scheme."

Most of the 1.6m needed for the flood prevention scheme has come from Mountcity Group, while the floods defence committee has contributed 200,000 and a further 100,000 came from the Environment Agency.

Thorncliffe Business Park, just off junction 35a of the M1 motorway, is home to a number of companies including B. Braun medical supplies, Chubb, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions and The Plumb Center.

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