Action plan gets £160,000 funding to reduce the impact of flooding across West Yorkshire

An innovative plan to reduce the impact of flooding and climate change in West Yorkshire over the next six years.
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Spearheaded by five local Lead Flood Authorities across the region, the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (FLIP) has just been achieved a successful bid for £160k local levy funding from the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee to get it off the ground.

Learning from the programme will be shared across organisations to help others deliver similar projects successfully across the region, nationally and internationally.

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Councillor Jane Scullion, Chair of the West Yorkshire Flood Risk Partnership and Deputy Leader of Calderdale Council, said: “Our ambitious programme will explore new ways to help protect vulnerable communities from flooding, something which is urgently needed throughout our region, as climate change is increasing the frequency and scale of flooding events.

Flooding in CalderdaleFlooding in Calderdale
Flooding in Calderdale

“Collaboration will be key - involving people in our programme who do not normally work together including representatives from the private sector, community groups, charities and volunteers.

“We are also keen to work with representatives outside of the flood risk and environment sectors including the finance and insurance sector, transport, education, technology and health to ensure a holistic approach and other benefits for our communities.”

Yorkshire’s Integrated Catchment and Solutions Programme (iCASP) funded by the National Council of Environmental Research based at University of Leeds will provide scientific lead for the programme and independent evaluation.

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Professor Joseph Holden, Director of iCASP, said: Professor Joseph Holden, Director of iCASP, said: “We need to predict the future potential for flooding and build resilience by combining many different approaches rather than rely on individual interventions. Our role will be to make sure that the latest scientific evidence is used to test new techniques and to develop innovative solutions that work.

“We will support the design of novel world-leading approaches to improving flood resilience suitable for different types of locations, risks, catchments and communities.”

West Yorkshire’s five lead Local Flood Authorities originally submitted a bid for funding from the Government’s £200m Resilience Innovation Programme which although was unsuccessful, had support from the Environment Agency, academic partners, community based groups, Third Sector organisations and Yorkshire Water.

Since then, partners continued to pursue alternative sources of funding for their innovative proposals.

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