Leeds: Environment Agency said no to Leeds flood defences

A vital £100m flood defence plan to protect Leeds city centre was shelved by the Environment Agency only six months ago, it has been revealed - according to the Yorkshire Evening Post.

The scheme would have seen a series of defences built along the River Aire to protect businesses and residents from exactly the kind of heavy rainfall which struck on Monday.

The project was under development by the Environment Agency for a number of years before being shelved in January for at least three years due to financial pressures.

It would have included "washland or flood storage areas" further upstream of the river.

Meanwhile, a separate scheme to protect Wakefield residents from the waters of Ings Beck, a tributary of the River Calder, was also "delayed indefinitely" earlier this year, it has emerged.

The revelations came as opposition parties in Parliament said the government has slashed flood protection budgets and ignored warnings that defences were inadequate.

Details of the ditched Leeds city centre flood defence scheme were revealed in an urgent email sent yesterday by Leeds City Council to MPs.

Leeds East Labour MP George Mudie swiftly raised the issue in the Commons chamber.

The email, sent by Louise Tonkinson, the council's acting head of corporate communications, warned that the ditched plan was to "identify and build defences in some of the city's worst at-risk areas".

She also revealed that the council was "urgently seeking information" about the progress of a flood defence scheme for Wyke Beck in the east of the city.

More the 30 households had to be evacuated due flooding from the beck on Monday - it is the third time in just over three years that it is flooded.

Mr Mudie questioned Environment Secretary David Miliband, as the cabinet minister delivered an emergency statement on the devastating flooding in Yorkshire and the Midlands.

Mr Mudie asked: "Can the minister review the decision of the Environment Agency to shelve the £100m scheme which was designed to protect Leeds city centre?

"Could he also ask the Environmental Agency to expedite the Wyke Beck scheme in my constituency which will help alleviate flooding in an area which has been flooded three times in three years to the great distress of hundreds of people?"

Mr Miliband said Mr Mudie had made "an important point" and pledged to "take up those issues with the environment agency and write to him as soon as possible".

Leeds city council is to meet the Environment Agency next month to demand that the protection plans are put back on the table.

Council leader Mark Harris "Whilst this scheme would not have prevented much of the flooding in other areas of the city, it would have protected people and businesses from flooding in the city centre.

"We have got to have an effective scheme in place to protect people and businesses from flooding."

Meanwhile, Wakefield Labour MP Mary Creagh also revealed a crucial flood protection scheme had also been shelved in her constituency.

She said: "In January I received a letter from the local Environment Agency informing me that the Flood Alleviation Scheme for Ings Beck, a tributary of the River Calder, would be delayed indefinitely. It was supposed to be completed earlier this year."

She added: "Wakefield is now flooded for the second time in two weeks, many A-roads are affected, the East Coast Mainline is shut, and the M1 and the M62 motorways are both greatly affected as they follow the path of the rivers Calder, the Aire and Hebble that run through my constituency."