Revised flood prevention scheme 'just as effective'
West Berkshire Council engineer says new plans for Cold Ash Hill are more likely to get funding from Defra
DETAILS about new flood prevention plans in Thatcham and Cold Ash have been released.
West Berkshire Council has drawn up revised plans for an attenuation pond in Cold Ash Hill after the Environment Agency advised officers that the original scheme would be unlikely to get funding from Defra because it was too expensive.
The latest plan includes just one pond – which works by storing run-off water during peak rain fall, releasing it at a controlled rate later to reduce the risk of the sewer inlets becoming overwhelmed – rather than the three that had been in the first draft, which was expected to
cost £3.5m.
With just one deeper and larger pond, the scheme will cost £2.5m less but should have the same benefits, according to the council's principal engineer Stuart Clark.
He said: “We have run the computer model and this showed that much of the benefits we were getting from the original scheme, we are now achieving in this revised scheme.
“So much so that because we are reducing the cost it's now achieving a far better score [with Defra].”
The majority of the expenditure would go on excavation work, and so by reducing the number of ponds from three to one, the cost of the project is estimated to be £1m.
He added that although the new scheme ticked more boxes on the outcome measurement criteria, he did not think Defra would provide all the money.
At a recent meeting, Mr Clark asked Thatcham Town Council and the Cold Ash Community Partnership if they would consider making up the shortfall, which both agreed to look into.
He said: “It is unlikely that we would get 100 per cent of the funding.
“But if there was any shortfall, it would be a very small amount."
He also said that his team had been talking to several local contractors to keep the cost as low as possible.
The need for a prevention scheme in Cold Ash Hill came about after severe floods in 2007 when more than 1,100 homes in Thatcham were flooded (pictured).
