Aston and Wath net flood prevention cash

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has awarded Rotherham Borough Council the funding through its Flood Defence Grant in Aid system.

The Defra Funding is managed by the Environment Agency and Rotherham Borough Council had to submit bids for consideration.

The borough council was successful and has now been awarded two grants, with £325,000 going to the Wath area and £191,000 for Aston.

Graham Kaye, RMBC’s principal drainage engineer, said: “The grants are good news in terms of Rotherham’s continuing efforts to bolster its flood defences.

“The grant we have received from Defra is primarily for property level flood protection in some areas of Aston, meaning that we will be installing flood boards and other preventative measures onto individual properties to prevent water entering the houses in the event of a flood, which is similar to a scheme Rotherham carried out in Whiston a couple of years ago.

“Some of the money will replace trash screens either side of The Chase at Aston, basically large metal grills located within the watercourse which require regular maintenance works.

“We have also received £325,000 worth of funding for works, including replacing two much larger trash screens on Brook Dike at Wath.

“This will reduce the flood risk in the area where they will be working in conjunction with the replacement culvert at Station Road carried out by Streetpride earlier this year.

“The proposed works are the latest in a series of flood alleviation schemes carried out since the floods in 2007 and 2009.”

Mr Kaye said ten Aston homes have been identified for protection which had flooded in the past and other properties were also at lesser risk.