£1m flood protection scheme launched | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

£1m flood protection scheme launched

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Michelle O’Neill, has launched a new £1million scheme to help people protect their homes from flooding.

FloodThe grant scheme will allow owners of residential properties at risk of flooding to install physical barriers and equipment to help reduce the impact of flooding on their homes.

Launching the Homeowner Flood Protection Grant Scheme Minister O’Neill said, “We have all seen the damage and hardship that flooding can have on individuals and communities over recent weeks so I am delighted that this scheme will help homeowners, that may not be able to benefit from a larger scale flood alleviation scheme, to protect their property from flooding.

“Those eligible for the scheme will receive a 90% grant towards the cost of installing equipment to protect their homes. Depending on the size and type of property we would expect the contribution from homeowners to be around £350 to £750.

“It is not always possible to completely prevent flood water entering a home, however, individual property protection can reduce the potential internal flood depth, and this can substantially reduce flood damage and the subsequent costs of property repair,” the Minister added.

The overall cost of protecting an average home is expected to be between £3,500 to £8,000 using measures such as door barriers, airbrick covers, non return drainage outlets and waterproofing walls.

“I would encourage people who have flooded before, or may be at risk of flooding, to contact Rivers Agency and determine if their property meets the scheme eligibility criteria,” Minister O’Neill added.

This scheme is a new approach to flood protection, developed by Rivers Agency on behalf of the inter-departmental EU Floods Directive Steering Group. It will run for at least two years at which time a review will be undertaken to determine its longer term viability.

The Scheme documents are available from the Rivers Agency website: https://www.dardni.gov.uk/rivers-agency

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=54473

Posted by on Jan 21 2016. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Leave a Reply







Find us on Facebook

Log in | Designed by Gabfire themes