South Yorkshire flood protection plan launched

Leaders in the public and private sector said South Yorkshire was 'experiencing the impacts of climate change first-hand'

A £400m plan to protect homes and businesses in South Yorkshire from future flooding has been revealed.

Councils, ministers, government agencies and water companies will work together on the the Connected by Water Action Plan.

The scheme, which has £110m of government funding, involves 100 projects designed to cut flood risk.

South Yorkshire's mayor, Dan Jarvis MP, said he believed the plan could "break the cycle".

Parts of the county suffered devastating floods in November 2019.

In Doncaster, where the River Don burst its banks, 700 homes were flooded or deemed as 'unliveable'.

After a month's rainfall in just one day, the equivalent of 2,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools was drained from affected areas which included Fishlake, Bentley and Scawthorpe.

More than 10,000 homes and businesses are covered by 27 priority projects with another nine 'shovel-ready' schemes aimed at protecting a further 1,400 homes.

As well as walls and barriers, the plan, formally launched on Friday, will use a range of natural methods to slow river flow and create more space for water.

Hundreds of people were forced from their homes following 2019's downpours

Mr Jarvis told the the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "A key part of this is using natural solutions to cut flood risk, like tree planting and land management, because it doesn't just tackle flooding, it helps with nature recovery and gets us closer to our target of net zero carbon emissions by 2040 at the latest.

"Climate change is leading to increased rainfall and rising sea levels which hugely increase flood risks, but by introducing nature-based solutions to the mix we can break the cycle."

Floods Minister Rebecca Pow added: "This plan is a crucial step forward in improving the climate resilience of communities across South Yorkshire, which I hope will avoid a repeat of the devastating impact the November 2019 flooding had on people and businesses across the region."

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