The flood level during Storm Bert on 22 to 24 November 2024 reached a peak at the Environment Agency’s (EA) St Johns gauge within 3cm of the peak level recorded in the 2012 flood which triggered the current series of investigations and proposals for flood risk reduction in that area of the town.
At the Town Hall launch meeting on 11 July last year it was announced that the community-led scheme was to be progressed under the leadership of Wiltshire Council, and that they had been awarded £60k by the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) to extend and upgrade the modelling, benefit estimation and costing to bring it up to the standard needed to receive the approval of the EA and go to the RFCC again to request the funding necessary to carry out the design stage.
We are glad to say that after some delays in starting the work is now progressing well. We have carried out extra survey work, extended and corrected the model and are now nearly ready to run it to assess the impact of the proposed scheme and carry out the benefit and cost analysis.
If all goes to plan we would expect to be in a position to go back to the RFCC early next year and press on with the design work.
