Scene setting Mr Speaker, Honourable Members. Whilst it has only been a year since I last delivered my Annual Address, it seems a very long time ago, not.
MAJOR plans designed to reduce flood risk for communities along the River Aire have been given the go-ahead by councillors in Leeds. At a meeting today, Leeds City Council’s city plans panel approved the construction of a flood storage area between Horsforth and Rawdon. Led by Leeds City Council in partnership with the Environment Agency, Bradford Council, Network Rail and Yorkshire Water, the storage area project is part of an extensive programme of work that will reduce flood risk for 1,048 homes and 474 businesses along a 14km stretch of the River Aire upstream of Leeds train station. This upstream programme, which is phase 2 of the wider Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS), has been split into two steps and includes natural flood management across the River Aire catchment as well as new defence walls, embankments and a flood storage area.