A PENDLE flood campaigner has unveiled a £1 million boost for flood defence funding in Earby.

Councillor David Whipp is delighted after an application for over £600,000 was approved by European Regional Development, with another £400,000 in match funding expected to come from the Environment Agency.

Cllr Whipp said: “Earby was badly hit by flooding on Boxing Day 2015 and again in September 2016. Following the flooding two years ago, at Pendle Council we applied for European Regional Development Funding to help pay for flood alleviation work.

“We've received a letter this week that the full application has now been approved for almost two thirds a million pounds (£635,260). This is subject to the Environment Agency (EA) match funding this with a further £400,000 plus to make a total investment of £1,058,766. The EA funding is expected to be confirmed in March/April.

“I'd like to thank the engineering staff at Pendle Council who have worked hard to get this funding approved.

“Now this key funding is in place, it’s vital to get work carried out on the ground. The funding is to be used to implement some of the flood alleviation measures that'll be recommended from the EA study being carried out. Consultants doing the study are due to report soon.

“There’ll be a range of flood defence works recommended to be done to reduce the risk in Earby, such as upstream storage and natural flood management. This funding will help pay for this work.

“Meanwhile, Pendle Council is hoping to get the final nod of approval from the government to invest in the community flood resilience work which we expected to get on with last March.

“We're also still waiting for the EA to get on with work to repair Victoria Clough, which got outline funding approval two years ago. I’ll be pressing for this new money to be invested as soon as possible to reduce flood risk.”