- 11 months ago
MP Mark Garnier, Anthony Perry from the Environment Agency and Mayor of Bewdley Nicole Harper officially unveil the new flood defences for Beales Corner
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00:00This scheme is here to provide valuable benefits to the community and reduce
00:06flood risk in the future. So I'm Anthony Perry, Operations Manager at the
00:11Environment Agency and I'm joined by Madam Mayor Nicole Harper here and Mark
00:17Garnier MP for Wyre Forest and we're going to say a few words now and then
00:23Mark will do the formal opening and we have an opening plaque here today. So I
00:28think what I'm going to start on is sacrifice. Now I just want to acknowledge
00:33that as people we do a lot of sacrifice. We sacrifice for each other to make lives
00:40better, we sacrifice to make our environments better for other people and
00:46we also sacrifice for future generations. And I just want to acknowledge that there
00:50are people that have sacrificed things to make things better for other people and
00:56the future. And if you've ever been flooded like I have and seen the impacts
01:01that it has on families, relationships and things, actually your sacrifice has made a
01:07massive difference to people's lives today and in the future. So first of all I want
01:12to acknowledge you know whether that's you sat on the bypass because of the one
01:17way system or the impacts that you've had through the construction in your garden.
01:22I just want to acknowledge that that sacrifice that you've made for this scheme and for
01:27others and the generations ahead. So thank you. And on that I'll hand over to Nicole.
01:33Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you today to mark the
01:39completion of the work by the Environmental Agency on our flood defensive. This is not
01:45quite the end of the disruption, I'm sorry to say. We have had a lot of
01:51work started two years ago. We need to be patient a few more weeks while 7.20 finished the work. But
01:57never mind, we should celebrate today. Let's not forget the disruption that floods have caused
02:03through the hundreds of years with records dating back to 1576 and 1620. Some of our older residents will remember the floods of 1947 and 65 but we, most of us, remember those of 1998.
02:18and 2000. When over 140 properties were flooded, the section of the Stone Quay Wall in 7th of
02:28Side North collapsed and the town was extensively flooded three times in the state of six years. We all remember that. Since the completion in 2006 of the South Bank defenses, the beauty side of the river has been protected by 200 meters of
02:48permanent brick defenses and 630 meters of demountable defenses, providing protection to 175 properties. The Ribbon Hall side, however, continued to suffer with streets and houses flooded and families left with huge losses.
03:06These floods impacted also on our local businesses, on transport links, commuter routes through the town and the local economy. After the 2020 flood, the government allocated funds to alleviate flooding and deals for them and work finally started in the autumn of 2023. We really welcome now the completion of this work, which should keep all of the Udli safe in the future.
03:34Acutely people and businesses have found these last two years, as Mark said, as Oaks has said, very difficult. We broke closures, traffic diversions, extra miles on their daily journeys, more traffic congestion and the loss of trade for the town businesses.
03:52Our social media has been filled with questions about is the bridge open. Of course it was. It was hardly closed. Criticism about the scheme and comments from some amateur traffic managers who thought they could have done much better.
04:07But please remember, or imagine if you are new to the town, the disruption to traffic when the bridge was closed during floods, the chaos, the rush for sandbags, which were the sole protection against rising water, the wreckage of people's homes, the long cleaning up afterwards as flood water was mixed with sewage, the financial loss to businesses and families, the trauma of having to rebuild your life after such an event.
04:35If you need to be reminded of what floods mean, I invite you to visit the exhibition, Currents of the past at the Udli Museum. It's running until the 28th of September.
04:47You can see photos and hear firsthand what all this recent work will protect us from. As Mayor of Budely, I want to pay tribute to all those who have played a part in this project.
04:59The Department for the Department for the Department for the Department for the Department for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who have funded the scheme.
05:05The White Forest District Council, who were pivotal in the planning process. The Environmental Agency, its engineers and workforce, who designed and delivered the project.
05:15The utility companies, the utility companies, who were involved in the process alongside them. The Budely Rowing Club, who gave over their land for use as the work compound.
05:25The Budely Town Council, who gave up space in Riverside North Park, for use as the contractor's car park. And the Worcestershire County Highways Authority, who kept the traffic more or less flowing.
05:37Finally, I want to thank the businesses and residents of Budely, who showed great resilience, patience and understanding.
05:47Today, as a result of those sacrifices, we can look forward together to a more secure and prosperous future. Thank you.
06:03As Merteng is that the town of Budely is defined by the River Severn. Obviously, you know, in a positive way on a day like this, you know, but actually what comes with it is the history of the flooding that was talked through.
06:17And when we look at the history of flooding, we hear people say, well, it's always flooded. The impact's always been there.
06:24But actually, you know, 2000 floods that came through and caused that devastation through the town. The work that we carried out in 2004-05 opposite to build the seven side barriers north and south.
06:38And we come along and we deploy them. When we assess the frequency that we would need to deploy them at that time, it was seen that once every five years we would need to do it.
06:48And actually, you know, since 2019, we've deployed them 18 times. So you can see the frequency of the flooding that is affecting this town. So actually, just because flooding has happened in the past, it doesn't mean that it has happened in the future.
07:03So with this scheme here at Beals Corner, I first started the Beals Corner journey with Jill Holland and the Ribbonhaw Flood Group in 2006, where we were talking about trialing temporary barriers.
07:16So the concept of the Trempew barriers was that the 2000 flood had come through the Seven causing lots of problems. Across Europe, they were using A-frames, different temporary barriers that were brought into communities at times of flood.
07:30So it was seen that the Seven was a perfect place to trial these products. So we started in 2003 in Ironbridge, and then we extended trials into places like Worcester and up to the Pond Seven.
07:41And then after 2006, we extended that trial to the Ribbonhaw area here. And then really, the trials, every time we deployed, we learned something new about the drainage systems, about how they would work in an environment like this.
07:57Sadly, you know, they've been deployed 21 times since 2006, and on two occasions, they've either outflanked, because actually they were 1.2, 1.3 metres lower than what these are.
08:11So actually, in the future, these defences are going to protect the community to such an extent to those larger floods that come through the town as well.
08:22So the experiences that we had with them being overwhelmed, we won't see that with this permanent scheme.
08:28It'll have to be a very, very big flood coming through the seven before it starts coming over these defences.
08:34And I think on a flood like that, there will be devastation everywhere on something of that scale.
08:40I hope it doesn't happen in my life. But anyway, just ending on really sacrifice, we have a thank you board that has got a special thank you to a lot of people that have been involved in this project.
08:54So I'm not going to go through the detail of thanking everyone, but I do want to talk about the sacrifice and just say a special thank you to Jill and Paul Walnut, who have had a lot of disruption in their gardens.
09:08And they don't benefit from this. They have had to sacrifice and compromise around a lot for them.
09:16So I think I want to thank them. And I also want to thank Denise Harris and some residents in Seven Side Mill who are also the case where they don't benefit from it.
09:25But there's also the sacrifices of the Millside Court, the residents while the construction has gone on.
09:30But I wanted to make a special thank you to them because actually they don't benefit from this.
09:34And then of course, all of those people who have sat in traffic for the last two years that have had to sacrifice, you know, their time within that.
09:42So I'm going to end on people because this scheme talks about construction, but it is all about people.
09:49We're doing this for people. We're doing this for the future. And it's about people that make this.
09:54Yes, we capitalized on some money, but thankfully, Rebecca Powell and the government at the time put into basically stimulating growth after COVID.
10:07And so we capitalized on that to be able to secure money to build this, which is fantastic.
10:13But actually, it still takes people to do business cases, go through a lot of hurdles to actually achieve this.
10:21And there's one lady who has actually been with this from the start.
10:25And it wouldn't have happened today without Gossier Chandler, who has put her heart and soul into this project.
10:31And she's battled through a hell of a lot to get this delivered.
10:35So I'm going to do a quick round of applause for Gossier.
10:38Where is she?
10:39Where is she?
10:40I didn't expect.
10:45And now we're going to hand over to Mark.
10:48Well, look, Anthony, thank you very much.
10:49It's a great pleasure for me to finally be able to come down and be part of this unveiling process.
10:57Anthony and I first got together talking about flood defencing, including right over there, 15 years ago at the very least,
11:04where we were chatting about property level defences.
11:06But for those people who lived in Fields Corner, property level defences were great if you were there,
11:11but it meant you had to be there all winter in order to put your defences up in case the flooding didn't come along.
11:17And in the end, it just wasn't quite what was needed here.
11:20But this has been a much longer process, as people have imagined.
11:24One of the first things we had to do was persuade the Treasury that there was value in putting defences here.
11:30The Treasury has this very, very complicated system where they look at value for money.
11:34And actually, they didn't reckon there was good value for money putting it here,
11:38even though the misery for people here is exactly the same as the misery for anywhere else.
11:43So we managed to persuade the Treasury that it was the right thing to do.
11:46We then had to make sure we got the money.
11:48I managed to get the Prime Minister to come down.
11:51It turned out to have to move on from his job after a bit.
11:54But Boris did come down and he promised he would get beautifully done.
11:58And this proved today that he has actually delivered on something he promised five years ago.
12:03Anthony also mentioned Rebecca Powell, who has been fantastic as the Environment Minister,
12:09who helped a huge amount to get the money.
12:12Bit of a fun fact there, Rebecca's sister lives just up the road,
12:15so she had a quite best edition, but it was great to have her on board.
12:19But look, I really want to thank the Environment Agency in particular,
12:21notwithstanding all the other important people who have helped,
12:25but the Environment Agency, and Anthony Perry in particular,
12:27have done an amazing job of delivering these flood defences.
12:32It has been disruptive, of course it's been disruptive,
12:35but you can't spend £10 million on quite sizeable infrastructure
12:38without a little bit of inconvenience.
12:40But it has been amazing working with Anthony and the response he's had
12:44in terms of responding to local residents as this has been moving on.
12:48I've also found it incredibly entertaining hearing stories about what's been discovered,
12:53including a set of gas pipes, nobody could quite figure out what these gas pipes were for,
12:57until somebody pointed out that it was taking the gas to the old gas lamps
13:01that used to be on Fugee Bridge 120 years ago.
13:04So there's been some really interesting archaeology that's been done over the period.
13:08But we are where we are now.
13:11Finally, after all this time, after all this lobbying, after all this persuasion,
13:15after all of this work, we finally not only have the flood defences,
13:20but we also have a new Riverside Park, we've got some landscaping being done,
13:24and everybody now can finally sleep safe at night,
13:27knowing that floods will not disrupt Fugly in the same way that they have done
13:31over the last 150, I don't know, 200, 500 years.
13:35And now, as I say, thanks to a whole lot of people,
13:38we've finally got Fugly done.
13:40So it gives me unbelievable pleasure and quite a lot of relief
13:44to be able to slowly unveil the pack of places
13:52and declare the defences open.
14:04And thank you for everybody for coming along today.
14:07Please come down, we've got some information boards here.
14:10We have got a marquee, no, our gazebo up, marquee, overdoing it, gazebo down there.
14:18So do come and have a chat with any Environment Agency staff,
14:21and we can talk more about the scheme and what it's about, really, here today.
14:25So use this opportunity to come and talk to us.
14:28And we've also got the contractor, Jacksons, who have been working here.
14:32We've got Arup, the designer.
14:33So do come and have a conversation with any of us afterwards.
14:36But most of all, thank you for coming along.
14:38And I think, really, we'll end on the fact that, actually, it's about the future.
14:44And this is what the future's about.
14:46And just saying, as people, we can make lives better for the environment.
14:50So thank you, everyone.
14:52Can I tell you about how it feels to yourself as part of the environment?
14:56It's absolutely fantastic here to be at the opening day here.
15:02I've been down in Budely many times in the 30-odd years that I've been working in flood risk management across Worcestershire.
15:09And I've seen the impact that it's had on families at times of flood.
15:13And what I'm really pleased about is that, in the future now,
15:16then we won't, you know, those families won't have to go through all of that hardship.
15:20There's been a lot of hardship over the years, but there's always still a reward here.
15:23You can see this very impressive event.
15:25It is.
15:26You know, this system here is brilliant.
15:29And, you know, I think the glass panels, the demountable defences, the wars,
15:36everything blends the new and the old really well together in Budely.
15:40So, aesthetically, it just connects the town.
15:43I've asked Mark about this, and I've asked their habits,
15:46just whether you're proud of it.
15:48What's the other riding of worship you celebrate?
15:50Yeah, I'm just so proud.
15:52You know, for me, it's the people that have put a lot of work in.
15:56There's people I know, and I mentioned Gossier today.
15:59She's been up, when there's been deadlines on funding the next day,
16:03and if she doesn't get in, we don't get the funding.
16:05She's been up all night writing business cases and things.
16:08So, she's so committed, and I feel so proud of the commitments that people have put in,
16:14into this scheme to enable it to be here today.
16:17So, for yourself, Mark, talk about how you're feeling right now
16:21to see these barriers finally up and ready to go.
16:23I was just amazed.
16:24I mean, for me, it's been a 15-year journey.
16:26I first met with the Environment Agency back in 2009, 2010,
16:31around the time I was first an MP,
16:33and we were looking at how we were going to defend Beals Corner,
16:36and the problem was that Beals Corner,
16:38there's about 27 houses being protected,
16:40and it was going to cost around £10 million,
16:41so that's a lot of money per house.
16:43What we've managed to do, though, over the years,
16:45is we've started off with property-level protection,
16:47but we've managed to persuade the Treasury
16:49to value the protection of her house on a different basis.
16:54So, now we've managed to get over that funding hunt,
16:57and then the rest of it was just a question of getting the whole thing into place,
17:00getting the support of the Prime Minister
17:02and the support of the Parliament Minister,
17:04and here we are, 15 years later, with it all done.
17:08You've obviously lived the experiences of people who live around here,
17:11and you've heard of their troubles and everything.
17:14So, just talk about what it means for people who live able to go on.
17:17Well, for them, of course, prior to all of this,
17:19they had the risk of their houses being flooded.
17:22They had property-level protection,
17:24but that meant they had to be here in the winter,
17:25so you couldn't give away from them.
17:27Therefore, the risks are new.
17:29David was there for other protection.
17:31And then, of course, we had the trauma of the flood defence,
17:33because every flood defence is breaking up on a couple of occasions
17:36over the last few years.
17:37So, there's been danger, there's been misery, there's been, you can't get away.
17:41And, of course, the other point is the value of the properties,
17:44which was subsequently quite low.
17:46Now that this is all finished, they can go away through the winter,
17:49they can go away for Christmas,
17:50they can know that every property is going to be safe,
17:52there's going to be better resale value for those properties.
17:55Everything has changed.
17:57But it's not just for the residents here, it's for the town as well.
18:00So, the town suffered when the floods came,
18:02because, of course, you couldn't drive through the town.
18:04Now you can.
18:05So, these defences mean that the bridge will remain open,
18:07and that's really important.
18:09I think, like, when I asked the mayor about this,
18:11I asked him if she felt pride, relief, or sort of what emotions she was feeling.
18:15What are your emotions about that?
18:16Oh, I'm quite proud.
18:17I mean, I've been very heavily involved in getting this all pulled together,
18:20so I'm dead chuffed.
18:22But, look, the most important thing is it's not what I feel,
18:25it's what the town feels.
18:27And what I hope is that the town, you know,
18:30now has got past all the trouble,
18:32they've got past the two years of the work,
18:34they've got past the years and years of the flooding,
18:37and now it's all going to be over,
18:38and they can just get on with their lives with this in place.
18:41And it's never going to entirely stop the risk of flooding.
18:45No.
18:46But it's certainly going to have a darn good go at actually preventing real damage.
18:49Yeah, absolutely.
18:50It's going to, you know, you can't reduce risk to zero,
18:55but it's reducing risk by a great, great, great deal.
18:58Is it something it means for you today to be here to see the defences now up?
19:02Well, it's taken a long time and many, actually, centuries of flooding
19:07that eventually will come to an end, we hope.
19:10And it's caused a lot of disruption in town.
19:13The floods do cause a lot of disruption, and the work has done as well.
19:17So I think residents will be very glad to see the end of it,
19:20and businesses will be delighted to see the trade return.
19:24I see, because the floods have been applied upon you for years and...
19:28Centuries.
19:29Around centuries, yes.
19:30And people around this area, they've adapted Syria, they've made the best of it,
19:35but just to have this defence now, it's going to be so much more beneficial for them, isn't it?
19:39I don't think you can completely prevent the water from flooding your house,
19:43however many precautions you take, and people have tried everything.
19:48But sooner or later, you know, rushing for sandbags in the middle of the night,
19:51it's just, it's going to defeat you.
19:54So people will be safe now.
19:57You've been here to see the work as it's gone on, you've seen the people behind it,
20:01but certainly people have made this happen.
20:03Yes, there's quite, you know, a lot of people have been involved,
20:07from the government funding it through DEFRA,
20:11and the district council did the planning,
20:16and got it through planning,
20:18and then the environmental agency did the project,
20:21engineers have done amazing work,
20:23and then the, even the rowing club lent its land for the contractors
20:29to park their equipment on.
20:31The time council and the piece of park,
20:34to do a car park for the workers.
20:38I'm obviously forgetting somebody else,
20:42and Worcestershire highways.
20:44I've kept the traffic flowing, more or less, yes.
20:48I don't think pride is quite the right work,
20:50but just talk about what you're feeling right now,
20:52is it pride, is it relief?
20:54I think it's both.
20:56It's both pride that this amazing work has taken place,
21:00because, yes, it's taken two years,
21:02but it's been an amazing engineering work,
21:05and relief that it's soon be over.
21:08Once again, half of us,
21:09the business of the community has been some,
21:10and it's been some work has been some work.
21:11But things have been some work.
21:13You know, things have been some work.
21:14And the law ,
21:15which is a hard thing,
21:17but no matter where we've been,
21:18the law,
21:19and the law is done to serve us.
21:20And the law is done to serve us.
21:21And the law is the law,
21:22we're the law.
21:23We're the law,
21:24the law,
21:26and the law is to serve us.
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