Major investment pumped into Staffordshire town’s flood defences
A MAJOR flood defence scheme in a Staffordshire town will help make it more appealing to investors, the county council believes.
The county said the said the scheme, which is being supported by Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP’s Local Growth Fund, would protect Rugeley for generations and unlock land for business and residential development.
The £2m project, which received £1.3m from the LEP, will see a 370-metre embankment built along Western Springs Road, together with a short section of wall to prevent flooding from the town’s Rising Brook.
The county council said sizeable areas of Rugeley town centre were currently blighted by flood risk – meaning housing developers and businesses were reluctant to invest there.
The Environment Agency, which is carrying out the project with the backing of the county and Cannock Chase District Council, estimates that a severe flood could cause £15m worth of damage, create severe transport disruption due to closure of the A51 and put both the bus station and fire station at risk.
The new scheme will remove this risk, while also protecting an additional 117 homes and commercial properties.
Cllr Mark Winnington, Staffordshire’s economy leader, said: “The Rugeley flood defence scheme will see large areas of land currently blighted by flood risk become attractive to developers and investors, meaning further regeneration, new jobs and new homes.”
Planning permission for the work has already been granted, as it has for another important development in the county – a 38,000 sq ft unit at the new business park at Meaford, near Stone.
The county council has already completed a £6m road scheme to support the new business park, which will be built by Quinton-developer St Modwen.
The works, again supported by the Local Growth Fund, have included building a new roundabout and road, improving facilities for pedestrians and cyclists and creating a second junction to serve the business park.
The site is the largest undeveloped brownfield site in the county and could create up to 2,200 jobs.
Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP chairman David Frost said the schemes were important for the jobs and investment they brought to the county.
