West Worcestershire MP Dame Harriett Baldwin has welcomed news that the county council could take over the delivery of the permanent flood defence scheme for Severn Stoke.

The MP met with Worcestershire County Council leader Simon Geraghty and chief executive Paul Robinson in January to ask the council to work with the Environment Agency to find a contractor to deliver the scheme.

She also formally wrote to the council in April to ask it to take over the delivery of the scheme. This week it has been confirmed that the council is developing a plan to use a council contractor to do the work.

The Severn Stoke scheme has stalled because the Environment Agency's contractor was unwilling to do the work for the budget available and it wrote to the community last week warning that the project was on hold and needs more soil.

Earlier in the year, Dame Harriett met with the Environment Agency’s chief executive to share her concerns about the hiatus and she plans to meet with Flooding Minister Emma Hardy to try to secure support for the council project from the Frequently Flooded Communities fund.

Dame Harriett said:

“The current pause on the Severn Stoke scheme is extremely frustrating and local people have shared their concerns with me about their lack of confidence in the Environment Agency.

“I’ve been speaking to Worcestershire County Council for six months to ask them to step in. They have their own contractors and could do the work on the bund in parallel with their own work to raise the road which will cross the new bund.

“This is a logical next step and while the Environment Agency will still be part of the project, the work should be done by a team on the County Council contractor framework.

“I am grateful that the county council has taken this approach and hope that the project will get back on-course as quickly as possible.”