Major plans to protect the Kirkstall valley from flooding will be decided by councillors next week.
Members of Leeds City Council’s city plans panel will discuss plans for a series of defences designed to better protect the stretch of the River Aire between Leeds city centre and Calverley following the Boxing Day 2015 floods, which saw businesses under several feet of river water following Storm Eva.
The defences will offer a one in 100 year level of protection and include new defence walls and embankments, bridge works, water control structures and wetland habitats.
The plans also include listed building applications for flood defences at:
– Wellington Bridge (City Centre);
– Armley Mills;
– Clough House, Kirkstall;
– Newlay Bridge.
There have been 17 letters of objection, with concerns including a lack of consultation in Kirkstall and Newlay, concerns over tree replacement, significant impact on wildlife and ecology, the impact on allotment plots, habitat destruction and impact on beehives.
Support has been received by MPs Rachel Reeves and Hilary Benn, as well as civic watchdog Leeds Civic Trust and Cardigan Business Centre.
A council planning officer’s report recommends that the plans be approved in principle, subject to a raft of 80 planning conditions governing how the work will be carried out. The report concludes:
“This would reduce flood risk to a large number of businesses and homes by raising the standard of protection from the effects of flooding of a 1:100 year event and protect employment in the West Leeds catchment.
“Detailed design through condition discharge will further develop the indicative proposals and this will be
undertaken on a character, zone by zone basis.“This will consider carefully further consider the relationship of heritage assets, ecological interests and relationship to trees. Some impacts that will be unavoidable will be mitigated through ecological enhancements and tree replacement, carefully to be controlled through condition and in liaison with statutory and non-statutory consultees.”
If approved, work will start on the defences later this year.
The planning officer’s report – which will be discussed at the city plans panel in Leeds Civic Hall next Thursday, June 6, at 1.30pm – can be read in full here.
Leeds City Council submitted its application for flood defences last November.
The proposals have recently been amended to split the application into two steps. All works relating to the one in 200 scenario are removed from the current application and will come forward via a separate application
once the design work is more advanced.
Proposals removed includes the flood control structure at Calverley, and all flood protection measures located upstream at Apperley Bridge and Woodhouse Grove School.
The Government has made around £65m available for the scheme – but a funding gap of £23.3m still needs to be bridged before there is one-in-200-year level of protection wanted by Leeds civic chiefs.
Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves and council Leader Judith Blake have written to Chancellor Philip Hammond to invite him to Leeds to see the flood defence plans and meet residents and businesses who will benefit from the scheme.
Read more on WLD’s comprehensive flood defence coverage here.
_____________
While you’re here…
Producing your daily dose of West Leeds Dispatch comes at a cost!
There’s the hosting of the website you’re reading now, running our popular e-mail newsletter, membership of independent press regulator Impress, attending summer events, paying for equipment etc etc.
We need at least £200 a month just to break even – that’s money currently coming out of the pockets of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about what’s happening in our communities, connecting you with local groups and organisations as well as holding decision-makers to account and championing local issues.
And all that’s BEFORE we even think about paying something for people’s time – for instance, our editor puts in more than 24 hours a week in his ‘spare’ time to ensure The Dispatch publishes daily.
To put it bluntly, after nearly four years of daily publishing, we are not sustainable!
And we need YOUR help to continue …
For the cost of less than a couple of cups of coffee you can help support local community news and continue to give our communities a voice by taking out a subscription for just £4 per month (that’s just a pound a week).
As a thanks you’ll get your name on a roll of honour on our website. More importantly you will be enabling us to keep bringing you the news that matters about your neighbourhood.
Achieving a bedrock of supporters will give us a firm financial footing and help us plan for the future.
Supporting us couldn’t be easier…
Just follow this link.
or set up a standing order with your bank:
Contact us on Paywestleedsdispatch@gmail.com if you’d like to do this.
Over to you …