Leeds makes flooding protection a priority

After being repeatedly brought to a standstill be extreme weather, the city of Leeds is taking action as the Leeds City Council, in partnership with the Environment Agency, are investing more than £112M in a flood protection scheme that will protect thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses from the rising waters of the River Aire.

Specifically, the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme has been undertaken in the form of a two phase process and will precisely protect 1,048 homes and 474 businesses, with the first phase having already been completed and with the second phase entailing the construction of new defence walls, embankments, and a large flood storage area by BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald.

This second phase of the wider scheme will cost the council and the Environment Agency a sum of £87M and will cover the area known as the Kirkstall Corridor, with the completion of the project in its entirety due for the Winter of 2022.

The Leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor Judith Blake stated: “It is very pleasing and heartening to see the next stage of this ambitious scheme to reduce the risk of flooding along the River Aire starting.

“Seeing work happening on the ground will hopefully give reassurance to the communities, businesses and residents in the Kirkstall Corridor and upstream that soon they will have measures in place to prevent a repeat of the catastrophic damage and pain caused by the impact of Storm Eva.

“This is the first step of a two-step process which we are determined to see completed in full. We continue to call on the government to provide the remaining funding or meet with us to discuss options so we can ensure all communities vulnerable to flooding from the River Aire have the highest possible level of flood defences in place, and our city is as resilient as we can make it to the increasing threat of extreme weather events due to climate change.”

The Area Flood Risk Manager at the Environment Agency, Adrian Gill added: “Our joint project team is delighted to have achieved this significant milestone of starting construction on flood risk alleviation works in an area which was impacted by the floods of December 2015. Our shared ambition is to complete both steps of this second phase of the scheme.

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