Jenny Benson is going to tackle the 40 mile charity bike ride on Sunday 18 September to raise money for vital flood defence work in the town. Jenny is a Flood Warden for Cockermouth Flood Action Group and she helps other people ensure they are better prepared for any future flooding. If you’d like to sponsor her bike ride go to: http://justgiving.com/jenny-benson.
Flood Defence Proposals
The latest flood defence proposals, maps, questions and answers The Environment Agency has investigated whether improvements can be made to the existing standard of protection against flooding in Cockermouth. Results of this feasibility study show that improvements can be made and are justified on economic, technical and environmental grounds. As part of our study we investigated different options to reduce flood risk to the town and discussed these with local residents during February and March 2011. Working with the community has enabled us to address concerns and come up with our preferred option to reduce flood risk to homes and businesses in Cockermouth. The preferred option is to raise sections of the flood walls and embankments along the River Cocker and River Derwent. What happens now?
FLOOD ALERT !!!!
Letter to Cockermouth Post August 2011 Don’t panic, it’s not happening yet, but with our Town’s past history without defences it certainly will and what will make it worse next time is that traders will say “enough is enough” and throw in the towel, that will lead to shops being unable to be sold or let, once a few shops get boarded up many will follow, and before you know where you are the town will appear run down, once that happens your properties will devalue, not just by a few pounds but by tens of thousand of pounds. Yes the Cockermouth Flood Action Group has heard all the stories, “but I live on a hill and will never flood” – very true, many of you do, but it’s not necessarily your property we are looking at, it’s the entire infrastructure, the shops, the offices, transport, parking and then all
Visit to Pickering March 2011
5 Members of CFAG met Simon Marrington of the Forestry Commission in North Yorkshire who has been seconded to a 2 year project: Slow the Flow in Pickering. It is a partnership project led by Forest Research with Forestry Commission England, the Environment Agency, The North York Moors National Park Authority, Durham University, Natural England and the wider community. The lead funder is Defra with cooperation of landowners such as Duchy of Lancaster, North York Moors Railway and MOD. “It is about working with nature to try and store more water in the landscape and slow its passage downstream. The new approach to flood management relies on making changes to the way the landscape is managed, so that the passage of rainfall to rivers and its movement downstream is reduced and delayed. This will involve a range of ‘measures’, including:
