The Morpeth flood scheme which opens this week will protect residents by storing millions of gallons of flood water upstream - one of the largest projects of its kind built by the Environment Agency.
The scheme will benefit more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the town and is the largest flood protection project completed in the North East. The upstream reservoir on the town’s Mitford Estate works by storing up to 1.4 million cubic metres of water when river levels are high – enough to fill more than 560 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In September 2008, severe and prolonged rainfall caused 1,000 properties in the town to be flooded and forced hundreds of people to evacuate.
The scheme has also created 17 hectares of new habitat for local wildlife. 3,500 endangered white-clawed crayfish have been relocated upstream of the River Wansbeck – one of the last places in the UK where the native species has a stronghold. Construction has allowed for ‘refuges’ and continued habitat to ensure the crayfish will continue to thrive.
The project has been jointly delivered with Northumberland County Council, which provided £12 million in funding – one of the largest partnership contributions the Environment Agency has secured.
Sir Phillip Dilley, Environment Agency chairman, said:
“With one in six people at risk of flooding in England, flood schemes like Morpeth have a key role to play in protecting people and property, and provide a valuable boost to the local economy. Creating large-scale habitat is also vital to ensuring the survival of the country’s endangered species such as white clawed crayfish.”
“The success of this scheme is down to the way it has been developed in collaboration with others. In particular, the funding from Northumberland County Council is among the largest contributions received under the partnership funding regime.
“We are making record levels of investment, spending £2.3 billion over the next six years to reduce flood risk to more than 300,000 properties in England, and successful partnerships like this, with local authorities and business, will be key.”
Construction work on the scheme began in 2013 and has included a new flood wall and embankment along the riverside, over 368m long, including three new flood gates. Repairs and improvements to existing defences have also been carried out, with efforts to ensure that the look of the defences fit with the history and character of the town.
Click here for more information on the upcoming Flood Defence and Prevention Expo and conference in London in October - the UK's biggest dedicated event for the flood defence sector.
Near-real-time microbial monitoring of wastewater discharge and bathing waters is now possible thanks to the BactoSense ID solution created by Swiss-based bNovate Technologies.
ABB has launched AquaMaster+™, a digital platform for smart water network management, designed to help water utilities monitor, analyze and manage their water networks, preventing pipeline water losses and optimizing operations.
Craig Nienaber, Business Development Manager for Safe Access Solutions (SAS) at HUBER Technology, explores why the company is seeing a growing level of interest in its safe access solutions for critical infrastructure providers, including their application in wastewater treatment assets.
Albion Water, the first NAV (New Appointment & Variation) to have been established in1999 and now under the ownership of SDS Water Group, has appointed Andy Holland as its new Director of Business Development.
Southern Water has released film and images showing what it’s like to walk inside Hampshire’s expanded Yew Hill underground reservoir for the very last time, before it gets filled with water.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.