PRESS RELEASE 

16/09/2008 

In November 2007 the Severn and Avon Valley Combined Flood Group commissioned the report “Building on the Floodplain is Misguided (A Proof of Evidence)” This report was done out of frustration because the authorities from the Government down were not listening to local residents. 

If the first report did anything, it opened many people’s minds to the issues concerning the flooding of our homes and the debate has been going on ever since. Some people are still intransigent in their attitude and still insist that permission to build in and near the floodplain has not caused any problems. 

Our group believe that we now have to take the message to the next level consequently we have updated our report and have enough confidence to add “A Definitive Proof of Evidence” to the title. 

We hope that all those who are involved in building policy, the planning process and all aspects of development will read this report and take a positive approach to the issues and help resolve them.

Only today we have heard from Severn Trent (via one of our residents) that, and we quote, “We have an agreement with the Government that the sewage system in Tewkesbury will never be updated” does this mean the Government has written Tewkesbury off, we had hints of this when they announced their new deal with the ABI. 

We ask that this report “Building on the Floodplain is Misguided (A Definitive Proof of Evidence) is taken seriously and the flooding issues are resolved.