The Environment Agency and Vale of White Horse District Council have built a flood wall at St Helen’s Mill in Abingdon. It will reduce flood risk to homes at St Helen’s Mill and help to keep the access road to the car park open. We will routinely check the wall over the next year, to ensure it is working as it should be.
The flood wall has been designed with input from the local community to blend in with the local surroundings.
Carole Priestley, Chair of the St Helen’s Mill Residents Association said:
"We're really pleased with the look of the wall. It blends in well with the environment and will hopefully change the way that everybody lives at the Mill."
The wall is made of sheet piling below ground level and concrete clad in brick with a capping stone, finished with a railing on top.
Cllr Matthew Barber, leader of the Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “Residents at St Helen’s Mill have always had to live with a very high risk of being flooded. We’re pleased to have worked in partnership with the Environment Agency to provide this much-needed protection, though it really is just a small part of our commitment to investigate bigger flood-alleviation schemes for Abingdon.”
We have used information from recent flooding from the River Ock to update our understanding of how Abingdon floods. This information is being used to explore options to reduce flood risk in Abingdon. The Environment Agency and Vale of White Horse District Council will continue to work closely with the local community to look for opportunities to reduce flood risk in Abingdon.
Watch a short film of the St Helen’s Mill wall being built here: https://youtu.be/IEPnzy7-F1I
To find out more about this work visit:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/reducing-flood-risk-in-oxford-and-abi…
