Funding boost for three Southend flooding hot spots

August 2, 2017 by SBC

Thursday 3rd August 2017

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has secured £565k from the Department for Transport to put towards updating drainage at three areas of Southend’s highways network that are prone to surface-water flooding.

The three areas identified in the funding bid are:

• City Beach
• Shoebury seafront
• Harp House roundabout which provides access to Southend Airport

This money will be added to the £350k the Council has already set aside in its capital funds for the work, bringing the total pot to £915k.

The funding – which was secured via a competitive bidding process – will enable the Council to move forward with reinforcing the drainage systems in these three areas, which have suffered in recent extreme rainfall events, and will play an important role in alleviating flooding.

Cllr Tony Cox, Executive Councillor for Transport, Waste & Regulatory Services, said: “I would like to thank the council’s officers for their hard work in securing this money by putting in a high-quality and robust bid.

“This funding, together with funding set aside in our own budgets, will enable us to design and implement enhanced drainage schemes for areas at risk of surface flooding in extreme events.

“As climate continues to change and flash storms are seemingly becoming more frequent, these schemes will play an important role in improving their resilience to surface water.”

At City Beach, this funding will add value to proposed investment in new drainage infrastructure, with expected support from Environment Agency and Anglian Water, to deal with extreme weather discharges, and should provide some relief and reassurance to those businesses and residents affected.