Flimby and Maryport residents are being invited to share their thoughts on future flood risk management at an upcoming community drop-in session.
Hosted by the Environment Agency, on Friday 14 September at Flimby Sports and Social Club, the event will provide an opportunity for people to find out more about managing the impact of future flooding in their local area.
Since flooding in early December 2015, which saw large parts of the community affected, the Environment Agency has been exploring ways to better protect the area in the future. This has included extensive appraisal work to identify the best ways of investing up to £72 million of government funding allocated to Cumbria for improved flood defences.
The drop-in session, which will take place from 3pm to 7pm, will provide an overview of work that has been conducted so far and allow the project team to share the latest developments with the local community.
The event will include an explanation of the criteria local flood mitigation measures must meet to obtain funding. This, and community input will direct future flood risk management in Flimby and Maryport.
Environment Agency officers will also be on hand throughout the event to discuss and answer any other questions residents may have.
Stewart Mounsey, EA Flood Risk Manager for Cumbria, said: “We are pleased to be in a position to share the latest developments for manging future flood risk with the Flimby and Maryport community. We saw first-hand the devastating impact the floods of 2015 had on residents and businesses and we want to work really closely with the community to help reduce their impact in the future.
“We have updated models and considered several flood risk management options for Flimby and Maryport and now want to share the outcome of these assessments with the communities. These include re-establishing channel capacity, upstream storage, drainage improvements, construction of flood overflow systems, and natural flood risk management techniques.
“At present, no final decisions have been set in stone which gives us a great opportunity to share our refined options with local residents and gain further local knowledge and insight around proposals going forward. We would encourage everyone to come along to the drop-in session to learn more about our ongoing work, to contribute by sharing their views and thoughts on the plans and to see how they can continue to be involved as flood risk management recommendations develop.”
For those unable to attend the upcoming drop-in session, the information will also be available online following the event at www.cumbriastrategicfloodpartnership.org. Anyone without access to a computer or smartphone at home can get online via computers at their local library.
