Work to complete the £6m flood alleviation scheme for Feniton is now underway.
Once completed the scheme will help to minimise flood risk for up to one hundred homes, as well as preventing disruption to the primary school and local transport network.
Although flooding in the village dates back to the 1970s, sixty properties in Feniton suffered flooding in 2008 as the existing watercourse was unable to cope with the quantity of water during storm conditions. Since then homes have flooded every two or three years.
Following the 2008 flooding, East Devon District Council and partner agencies, the Environment Agency and Devon County Council, agreed to develop a scheme to collect flood water from above the village and divert it via a 1050mm diameter pipe down through the village to increase the capacity of the existing watercourse.
The final phase of the alleviation scheme will take approximately one year to complete. Work will take place in and around the village, surrounding fields, playpark, Warrick Close, Wells Avenue through to the southern part of the village, finishing in outfall on the corner of Ottery Road / Green Lane. Throughout the works there will be some necessary road closures.
Complementing the existing drainage system, the scheme will protect homes to a ‘1-in-100-year chance event’ standard from flooding. Downstream channel capacity has already been increased as part of Phases 1 and 2. In the north, a new inlet structure will collect flood flows from the hillside, taking them through the new culvert pipe, under the already completed railway crossing, known as Phase 3, and back into the watercourse south of the village.