Shropshire Slow the Flow project success
Shropshire Council is celebrating the success of the second phase of its Slow the Flow Natural Flood Management project, which is helping to reduce flood risk in local communities.
The latest work at Battlefield in Shrewsbury has been carried out by Shropshire Wildlife Trust, farmer Robert Jagger and other partners as part of the Slow the Flow 2 programme.
The project has restored ponds, created new wetlands, and installed leaky barriers to help slow down the movement of water and store more of it across the catchment.
Cllr Tom Dainty, said this when speaking to us:
"So the Slow the Throw project is working with our partners, so local landowners and farmers and other agencies such as National England and the Flood Forum."
"And the idea is basically to try and harness the land to work with us rather than against us. So we are trying to, bit by bit, manage small pockets of pockets of land to create a wider network, so that... The impact of flooding is lessened over the wider impact." He said.
"So the Slow The Flow project, the one that we're on about today, is up in the North of Shrewsbury by Battlefield, where we're working with local landowners to implement a series of flooding leaky dams, which is basically a series of wooden debris placed along gullies, culverts and flow channels."
"So once flooding events start to happen, there is a pooling effect and we don't get the massive rush of water down towards the highways, which is what causes the larger degree of damage."
The interventions are designed to make use of low-lying land for temporary water storage, reduce the speed of water flowing into rivers, and ease flooding on the Battlefield link road.
Local farmer Robert Jagger says it has brought some of his land back into use and is already showing benefits.
Shropshire Council says these kinds of natural flood management measures are set to play a bigger role in how the county manages roads and infrastructure, helping communities become more resilient to climate change and extreme weather.
The council plans to continue working with landowners and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust to expand the scheme in the future.