Shadow Environment Minister Maria Eagle has inspected work to protect houses in her constituency from the risk of flooding.
The MP for Garston and Halewood visited houses on the Woodland Estate, Netherley, which have been subject to intermittent flooding from the Netherley Brook.
Under the Government’s flood resilience community pathfinder scheme, £300,000 has been made available to introduce measures to reduce the level of damages householders face from floods and to set up a flood warden scheme. This follows intermittent flooding from the Netherley Brook.
Six of the most at risk properties had already receive protection, including fitting flood doors, flood airbricks, re-pointing and spraying protective sealant on the house bricks to a metre high,using Environment Agency funding. Following this work a successful bid was made under the pathfinder scheme
The city council has worked with the Woodlands Residents Association, with support from Ms Eagle on this issue. Measures, including new flood doors, patios, flood air bricks, non-return valves and re-pointing, are to be installed on a further 32 properties that lie along the brook.
A flood group, consisting of local residents has been established (pictured above with Ms Eagle).They monitor the estate and report blocked 
gullies and any significant obstructions of the watercourse. They also receive flood alerts and, using local knowledge, will make plans around preparations for defending properties against potential flooding.
The group has received advice from the Nation Flood Forum, the charity which provides support to victims of flooding and Paul Cobbing, chief executive of the Forum accompanied Ms Eagle during her visit.
Maria Eagle said: “I was pleased to see these sensible flood resilience measures on the Woodlands, which may help some householders avoid repeated incidents of flooding.
“As climate change makes our weather more wet and flooding ever more likely, many more householders, insurers, agencies and communities will have to take it more seriously as an issue. This scheme shows that simple and relatively inexpensive measures can really help to avoid the damage and heartache that having your home repeatedly flooded can cause.”
Local councillor Janet Kent said: “Netherley Brook has long been a cause of flooding to some homes on the Woodlands. Taking the opportunity of the pilot scheme to install protective measures to vulnerable the homes has resulted, not just in residents feeling safer in the face of climate change, but in warmer homes and in residents making their own decisions about the schemes linked to the installation of doors, sealing, etc. It is quite a challenge to have builders in but they, Whitehouse Construction, have been good friends to local people.”
