CLEVEDON TO BENEFIT FROM FLOOD DEFENCE WORK

27/06/2005 - Almost 3,000 homes in Clevedon in North Somerset will benefit from a £2.7 million Environment Agency tidal flood defence scheme starting this week.
The improvements to the existing flood defences at Marshall’s Bank and Land Yeo Outfall will provide extra protection to low-lying houses and include an allowance for sea level rise over the next 100 years.

The most recent flooding happened in December 1981 when a large surge on a modest spring tide flooded 305 properties and land up to 2 kilometres from the sea. Since that time many hundreds of properties have been built in the tidal floodplain.

Now, contractors Mowlem and consultants Black and Veitch are working with the Environment Agency to replace the Land Yeo Outfall structure, raise and strengthen the existing Marshall’s Bank and provide improvements to the water level management upstream.
"There has been a flood defence structure of some sort here since medieval times and the current outfall and flood banks now need updating to safeguard thousands of local homes and their residents from tidal flooding," explained Graham Buxton-Smith for the Environment Agency.
"We have already been on site carrying out preliminary work and now are ready to get on with the job which will be completed by March next year.

"The area is very popular with dog walkers and we have made sure that there is still access to Marshall’s Field and the coastal path beyond the Blind Yeo Sluice via the footbridge at the end of St Andrews Drive. We want to ensure that the public can safely continue to enjoy the area while this important work is in progress."

The Blind Yeo Sluice at the south end of Marshall’s Bank is in good repair as it was refurbished in a £1.5million project by the Environment Agency last year.