Consultation for the proposed flood water management scheme at Park Avenue
Winchester City Council is working in partnership with Hampshire County Council, the Environment Agency and the University of Southampton to develop a flood water management scheme around the North Walls/Park Avenue area of the City.
A public consultation on this scheme will run online from 28 January until 12 February.
This area is within the flood zone, and buildings such as St Bede Church of England Primary School, the University of Southampton School of Art and River Park Leisure Centre are very vulnerable to flooding. Once water starts to overflow from this area along Park Avenue, residential properties along this road and beyond in the City Centre are then liable to flooding.
This area was protected with temporary flood barriers and sandbag walls during flooding in 2014.
All parties are currently working to line up the necessary funding to enable the construction phase of the project to start in summer 2016.
In addition to the consultation, an exhibition of the proposed designs and drawings will take place at in the Westside Lecture Theatre at Winchester School of Art, Park Lane on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 February. The exhibition will be open to the public from 4pm to 7pm on both days and officers will be available to explain the proposed works and answer questions.
Cllr Frank Pearson, Portfolio Holder for Environment, Health and Wellbeing at Winchester City Council, said:
The Council is very pleased to be working with the Environment Agency, Hampshire County Council and Southampton University’s Winchester School of Art on this important scheme to help protect important community buildings and residential properties in the city centre.
We hope to be able to start construction this year on the flood water management measures and we are keen to seek local views on the scheme before the design of the measures is finalised.
Emergency planning arrangements are in place to protect properties should flooding become a risk in the meantime.
The consultation details and further information can be found online at https://winchester.citizenspace.com.