St Ives

The flood defence scheme in the Cornish seaside resort is aimed at reducing the risk of flooding from the Stennack River that flows through the town centre.

We have developed the scheme in partnership with Cornwall County Council, Penwith District Council and St Ives Town Council. The £10 million scheme will reduce the annual risk of flooding from 50 per cent to less than one per cent for 190 properties, and 2,488 homes will have safe access during floods.

The river has flooded St Ives ten times in the last 20 years. During the most recent major flood in 2002, eight people were rescued from the town centre by inshore lifeboat.

In the early stages of planning the scheme, we talked in-depth with the county, district and town councils, local businesses and the public. 'Working in partnership is really helpful in a tight-knit community like St Ives,' comments Fiona Geddes, project manager for the flood defence scheme. 'And it means that we're all pulling together and ensuring we're as efficient as can be.'

One result of this close co-operation is that construction work is carefully timed to avoid local events and celebrations. Work on a town centre square was speeded up to avoid disrupting St Ives' annual feast day.

Our planning for the scheme benefited from the extra knowledge of past flooding that local councillors have, while our partners were able to tell us about previous works that could affect construction plans.

'It's important to involve the right people at the right time,' says Fiona. 'At St Ives we involved key partners from the start in defining what was required of a flood defence scheme. We held a teambuilding day with them to discuss what we all wanted to achieve from the project,'she adds.

Ongoing liaison between our partners and us is via nominated individuals in each organisation.

It was vital to involve the public as well as local authorities. Public exhibitions were held and feedback from the community encouraged.

We have also employed a project liaison officer to visit all local businesses and liaise with the public, and regular newsletters are distributed to homes and businesses.

Minimising disturbance to the tourist trade and local residents is a challenge in a compact town like St Ives. It is being done through careful planning and phased programming of the works.

We worked closely with the county council to tackle the surface water flooding problems as part of an integrated approach. As a result the council has improved surface water drainage, including building a new pumping station.

Diverting river flows temporarily to allow us to reline culverts has been a challenge, but the newly-installed surface water drainage has been used to divert the flows of some works.