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Campaigners expose flood defence neglect

31 Oct 23 The shoddy state of England’s flood defences has been exposed by Greenpeace.

A study of Environment Agency data for Greenpeace鈥檚 Unearthed journalism project has found that more than 4,000 flood defences are categorised as being in a poor or very poor condition.

These defences range from flood walls and embankments to outfall pipes and culverts.

England has 64,000 鈥渉igh consequence鈥 flood defences, of which 4,200 were rated last year as either condition four, meaning poor, or five, meaning very poor.

This means that 7% of the country鈥檚 most important flood defences are deemed to be in a poor state, according to data obtained under freedom of information rules. Nearly 900 of the defences 鈥 1.3% of the total 鈥 were judged to be in very poor condition.

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Only 3% were deemed to be 鈥渧ery good鈥 or condition one last year, while a third were classed 鈥済ood鈥. The majority 鈥 57% 鈥 were rated 鈥渇air鈥.

The Environment Agency told Unearthed that it routinely inspects flood defences and when there is danger of a flood, emergency repairs are carried out. It clarified that when an asset is below the required condition, it does not necessarily mean that it has structurally failed, or that performance in a flood is compromised.

A spokesperson said that the agency had invested 拢200m between April 2022 and March 2023 鈥渢o ensure our assets were winter ready鈥.

While most of England鈥檚 flood defences are maintained by the Environment Agency, more than a quarter are privately owned and maintained by unnamed third parties. The data shows that privately owned defences are nearly twice as likely to be in poor condition: 1,500 of privately owned defences 鈥 9% of the total 鈥 were in a poor or very poor condition last year, compared with just 5% of assets maintained by the Environment Agency.

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