Local community urged to have their say on Looe Flood Defence and Regeneration Scheme before 21 July deadline 17 July 2023

There is still time to make sure your voice is heard – deadline for submitting questionnaires is midnight on Friday, 21 July.

A very big thank you to everyone who has attended the recent consultation events for the Looe Flood Defence and Regeneration Scheme.

Many people braved the appalling weather for the third event held at the Quayside Centre last Friday to come and talk to members of the project team and give us their views.

The unique geographic features of Looe already make the town vulnerable to flood events. Sea levels are projected to rise more rapidly due to climate change, increasing the extent, depth, and frequency of flood events.

There is no preferred option for the scheme – we want to hear the views of the local community on which option they feel will best protect the town from avoidable flooding events for decades to come.

Over the past years, Cornwall Council has done a lot of collaborative work with a number of groups within the town. This has included sharing factual survey data with the Looe Marine Conservation Group and listening to their views along with those from the Looe Development Trust, West Looe Town Trust, East Looe Town Trust, Looe Town Council and the RNLI. The project team have also worked with the harbour commissioners, fishermen, leisure boat users, dinghy club and RNLI in a group, known as the “Harbour Users Group”, and met with the “Save Banjo Pier” group.

Seven options have been considered in detail as part of the development of the scheme. These are:

• Adaptation of the town / community
• Demountable Barriers
• Permanent Flood Walls
• Quayside Extension
• Tidal Barrier Only
• Tidal Barrier with Breakwaters
• Carrying on as we are

The aim of the questionnaire is to help reduce the long-list of options above to a short-list.

We are aware of the recent petition by Jamie Pearne, which is essentially the same as the Permanent Wall option but seeks to lower the height of the wall by placing a small breakwater at the mouth of the river in a similar manner to that proposed by Joseph Thomas (Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers) in 1875.

We welcome this community-led initiative and look forward to receiving the petition, together with full details of their proposal.

All the other potential options have already been assessed against a range of technical, economic and environmental criteria. These include:

• Navigational safety issues
• the costs of building and operating the scheme
• the effectiveness in protecting the town from the risks of tidal, river, groundwater and surface water flooding
• potential challenges in constructing and operating the flood defences
• impact on both the marine and terrestrial environments, landscape and seascape and carbon emissions
• impact on heritage and amenities
• economic benefits

The project team are now looking to work with the community group to consider this new hybrid proposal using the same assessment criteria as the other options.

Once this work has been carried out, the results of the investigation will be shared with the wider community, together with details of the analysis from the previous consultation events.

We are hoping that the work on assessing the new proposal can be completed as quickly as possible to enable people to select their preferred option having seen the same technical, economic and environmental information provided for all the options.

The feedback from this process will be used by the project team to finalise the Outline Business Case which is due to be submitted to the Government later this year.

Thank you to everyone who has already completed our questionnaire, either online or in person at the consultation events. Anyone who has not yet done so has until midnight on Friday, 21 July to complete the questionnaire at www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Looe2023.

We are aware that some people using the online option have not yet completed their questionnaire – please check that you have answered all the questions and submitted it to ensure that your views are recorded.

We would also encourage people who have signed the petition to also complete an online questionnaire so their views can be included in the formal consultation responses.

Detailed information about all the current options, including the potential benefits, challenges and costs of delivering them, together with artists impressions, is available on the scheme’s Let’s Talk site https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/looe-flood-defence

The site also includes background information and short films about the history of flooding in Looe, the environmental work which has been carried out for the project up to this date, providing a summary of some areas of interest, and the importance of the scheme to the economy of both the town and the wider South East Cornwall area, as well as outlining some early mitigation ideas.

This is a very important moment, both for the Looe Flood Defence and Regeneration scheme and for the long-term future of Looe.

The support of local residents and businesses is vital to the success of the scheme.

We recognise that there are no easy choices and would encourage everyone to look at all the information which is being provided so we can ensure that decisions on the final scheme reflect the aspirations and needs of the community.

Ends

Notes to editors

The aims of the proposed Flood Defence and Regeneration Scheme are to:

• Protect Looe from frequent and severe flooding and damage over the next 50 – 100 years, giving the community time to adapt to a changing climate
• Enhance the environmental integrity of the designated sites and water bodies
• Work to promote economic growth in East Cornwall by:
  1. Protecting key transport links
  2. Protecting and enhancing the visitor and marine economy

The impact of climate change, with sea levels expected to rise by over one metre during the next 100 years, means that in less than 50 years most of the town will flood more often and to a greater depth, with sandbags and flood boards becoming less effective.

This will see key areas such as the health centre, the police and fire stations, the main food stores and cafes and the fish market, the main roads, the Harbour and Millpool car parks and the railway line flooded on storm and high tide days.

We recognise that there are no easy choices and would encourage everyone to look at all the information so we can ensure that decisions on the final scheme reflect the aspirations and needs of the community.