West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has repeated calls for Tenbury residents to speak up on the need for permanent flood defences. The MP has urged local homeowners and businesses to express their views on the need for a permanent solution to alleviate flooding in Tenbury. The town council is planning to run a consultation on October 9 to find out people’s view on permanent flood defences and will present the latest Environment Agency proposals. Harriett met with town’s mayor Mark Willis and the Environment Agency last month to set out a plan for identifying local views on flood defences. The town faced serious flooding in 2007 and has been threatened on several occasions in the following years, and homes and businesses have had to rely on new measures to protect individual properties such as flood gates. At the moment no funding is available to build a permanent solution that would meet cost-benefit criteria and local properties owners have been given grants to put individual flood protection on their homes and businesses. Ninety six properties have taken up this offer out of 168 eligible properties. Harriett commented: “I welcome the Town Council’s decision to ask people what they think about permanent flood defences. “There is no budget allocated at the moment, but I am happy to help make the case for future funding if local people think they do want a permanent solution to this perennial problem. “It may be that some parts of the strategic plan can be built over a number of years by breaking it into sections and once this consultation is complete, I have agreed to meet again with the Mayor and the Environment Agency to discuss the issue in more detail.”