The government has promised that it will be better prepared to deal with flooding this year, after a 66% increase in capacity at the Foss Barrier, which has benefitted from new pumps.  

Defra secretary Andrea Leadsom said Yorkshire will be better protected from flooding, as a £17 million upgrade to the city of York’s main flood defence goes ahead and £400m is set to be spent across Yorkshire. The Barrier was overwhelmed during flooding last winter, leading to questions around the failure of the government and Environment Agency to forsee potential problems.  

On Monday, Leadsom said eight new pumps will be in place by mid-October, increasing the barrier’s capacity to 40 cubic metres per second, up from 30. The barrier’s capacity will be further increased to 50 cubic metres per second next year, following upgrades to the power supply.

Visiting the Foss to see the works on the new pumps beginning, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom commented, “The flooding of the Foss Barrier became a focal point of last winter’s devastating floods and I am delighted to see it strengthened ahead of this winter, with £17 million invested, so our great city of York is better protected than ever before. Of course we can’t stop the rain falling and rivers rising, but I want people to be assured we are doing everything we can to keep our communities as safe as possible.”

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency, who was also at the Foss said “I visited Yorkshire last year and saw the terrible impact of the floods, and the anxiety placed on communities. The new, high capacity pumps at the Foss Barrier will help to better protect and reassure the people of York this winter and we have further plans to improve the defences throughout the city over the next five years.

“The installation of the pumps today is a key milestone in the Environment Agency’s extensive flood recovery programme, due to be completed in October.”

In the wake of the flooding in the north of England in December and January, senior members of the Committee on Climate Change expressed concerns about government flood spending; Committee members warned that, despite headline spending announcements on new defences, the government needed to commit money to the upkeep of existing defences, and said governemnt’s claims to have overseen record spending on flood defences were only true because of emergency cash injections after flooding in 2013-14.