Public asked for their views on managing flood risks

It is estimated that up to 20,000 properties in the district could be at risk of flooding if there is a period of extreme rainfall.

Kirklees Council has new legal responsibilities to manage local flooding across the district and is putting together a blueprint on the issue and seeking the public’s views on how flood risk should be managed.

Management of flooding from the larger rivers, such as Fenay Beck, the Holme, Calder and Colne, is the responsibility of the Environment Agency.

The council has to develop and publish a local risk strategy, explaining where the problems are, the measures to be used to manage the risk and how to pay for this.

There have been a number of flooding incidents in the district in recent years. People in the Spen Valley were badly affected when the River Spen burst its banks in 2007.

“The council is carrying out an information-gathering exercise on what the general public understand about flood risk and what they think the council’s priorities should be,” a spokesman said.

To take part people can fill in a questionnaire by visiting the website, www.kirklees.gov.uk/floodsurvey

A further consultation will follow in the summer, which will ask the public about the types of measures the council should concentrate on to manage risk. The strategy will be published next spring and will set out a three to five-year programme of work to help manage the flood risk in Kirklees.