The Environment Agency is working with Hertfordshire County Council to develop proposals for a flood alleviation scheme for Little Hadham in conjunction with a bypass on the A120.

The organisations are currently considering comments received following a public consultation last year and reviewing the proposals, before submitting a planning application in summer 2015.

The villages of Little Hadham and Hadham Ford have suffered from flooding from the River Ash and its tributaries on several occasions, including a number of events between 2001 and 2014. Environment Agency modelling indicates that 71 properties in Little Hadham and Hadham Ford are at risk from a 1% (1:100) chance of flooding in any year.

Following the flooding in October 2001, the Environment Agency developed the River Ash Flood Risk Management Strategy to examine the extent of flooding along the river and evaluate potential solutions for reducing flood risk.

Unfortunately the study concluded that flood alleviation measures for the River Ash would not meet the minimum cost-benefit criteria for government funding at that time.

Proposed flood scheme to be developed in conjunction with bypass

Hertfordshire County Council’s proposal for an A120 bypass has now allowed the Agency to revisit the opportunity to provide flood alleviation measures for Little Hadham and Hadham Ford.

In May 2011 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced a new approach to funding flood risk management - ‘Flood & Coastal Resilience Partnership Funding’. The new approach allows for contributions from central government funding to be made available to more flood and coastal risk management projects.

The amount of government funding available to each project depends on the benefits delivered by the project. The new approach allowed the Environment Agency to consider the Little Hadham scheme again.

Hertfordshire County Council’s proposal for an A120 bypass around Little Hadham provides the opportunity to take forward a joint project incorporating flood alleviation measures. This would involve using the bypass embankment to create flood storage areas to reduce the risk of flooding to the 71 properties at risk in Little Hadham and Hadham Ford.

The Environment Agency is now working with Hertfordshire County Council to develop a flood alleviation scheme in conjunction with the bypass.

Government funding gap to be made up from other sources

The flood scheme does not qualify for 100% central funding as the benefits are not high enough. Under the Partnership Funding approach we needed to make up the funding gap with contributions from other sources, such as from partners and those that will benefit from the scheme, to allow the project to go ahead.

Funding for the flood alleviation scheme was confirmed in 2014 and in conjunction with Hertfordshire County Council the Environment Agency held a pre-planning consultation between October and December 2014.

The Environment Agency and Hertfordshire County Council are currently considering the comments received and refining the proposals for the scheme as appropriate. A joint planning application will be submitted later this year, at which point there will be a further consultation carried out by the local planning authority.

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