Burt Visits Upton Marina Over Stalled Upton Flood Defences

8.37.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 7th Aug 2008

Local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Richard Burt held a site meeting at Upton Marina yesterday (Wednesday) with Upton Mayor, Tim Perry and Steve Arber, Operations Director for the marina development.

Mr Burt was told that work was expected to start on building flood defences for New Street to coincide with the extraction of clay from the marina.

The first barge load of clay for defences in Worcester was delivered on the day of the visit and extraction should be completed before Christmas. But plans to use the clay to build Upton's flood defences have been left high and dry following an Environment Agency announcement that work will not now start until some time next year.

Tim Perry said: "Doing the works together provided the ideal opportunity to transport extracted clay from the marina just a few hundred yards directly onto site to build the flood defences for New Street.

"We were assured the plans were in place and that it would be a simple operation to construct the bund with clay supplied direct from the marina.

"Plans were well advanced with preparations being made to provide accommodation for construction workers in the town as well as a traffic prevention order being put in place.

"Now it seems that something changed inside the Environment Agency and it's all off until next year."

Steve Arber, Operations Director for Tingdene Marinas Ltd said: "There is sufficient clay both for the Worcester and the Upton flood defences, and it makes perfect sense to transport the clay directly onto site for both projects.

Doing the works in tandem means that the material can be recycled, and only has to be handled and transported once. We will work with the Environment Agency to make sure this scheme happens, but it seems to me that the most cost-effective time to do the Upton scheme is now."

Richard Burt said: "It is quite clear that there has been some shift within the Environment Agency on the timescale for building these flood defences.

"There is considerable frustration that clay from Upton Marina is sailing up the Severn to Worcester, but not being used to build the town's own defences next door.

"I have written to Environment Agency officials asking for an explanation and requesting that work should start on the New Street bund very soon."