Under the Environment Agency's current formula, Tenbury's scheme scores 1.5, which means that there is £1.5 of economic benefit for every £1 invested in flood defences. This means that the scheme is viable, but must sit in a queue behind other schemes with higher scores.
Harriett Baldwin said, "I continue to be optimistic that if we apply persistent pressure we will get a proper flood defence scheme for Tenbury one day. After all, the budget for flood defence spending will rise to £800million per year from 2011. A lot of other schemes will be completed and Tenbury's scheme will rise to the top of the list."
As a result of further flooding on the 5th September this year Alec Wall from Tenbury sent an e-mail to The Right Hon Hillary Benn, Minister of State for the Environment, expressing his anger that despite promises of action to protect those who suffered flood damage in 2007 from future flooding, the people of Tenbury were to get no such protection. He had now received a reply from Mr Sayer of DEFRA with a briefing from the Environment Agency dated October 2008. In summary it states that following a study of the 2007 floods in the town a public funded flood alleviation scheme is technically possible, environmentally acceptable and economically viable at a cost of about £5 million. The briefing note also contained the information the Kyre Brook has now been reclassified as a main river.
Alec Wall stated "This is good news for the people of Tenbury. We must now keep up pressure on the Government to ensure the work commences as soon as possible"."