River Exe: Flood Control
(asked on 14th December 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 14 December (HL3737), when the Environment Agency intends to remove the weirs obstructing the flood water upstream of Cowley Bridge.
Answered by
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The removal of weirs in the River Exe is not part of the Environment Agency’s scheme to better protect the communities in the city of Exeter from flooding.
The option of removal of the three weirs at Exwick, Cowley and Pynes is being examined by Network Rail as the last stage of its work to help protect the railway at Cowley Bridge Junction (just north of Exeter) from flooding from the rivers Exe, Culm and Creedy. Subject to a detailed assessment of the impact of such a scheme of the wider area to be carried out by Network Rail, consent from the Environment Agency and funding availability, a weir scheme could follow on from work to widen and improve the existing flood culvert during 2017 and install an additional culvert in 2018.