WEST Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has asked the Environment Agency to ensure the Kyre brook in Tenbury is clear from obstructions.

Overgrown banks along the Kyre brook directly has contributed to serious flooding in recent years and the MP whose constituency includes Tenbury has asked the Agency to confirm that the brook and the river Teme are both free from obstructions.

Nationally, the Government is implementing a package of measures to prepare in case bad weather strikes including extra cash for local hospitals, a review of the national salt stocks and investing £12 million in temporary flood barriers and high volume pumps.

Locally, a flood resilience forum is in operation to manage emergency responders and the Environment Agency runs a major incident control room at its Tewksbury headquarters to manage teams if bad weather occurs.

“There are three major rivers running through my constituency – the Teme, Avon and Severn – and it is a matter of when, not if, major flooding happens again,” said Mrs Baldwin.

“I urge local people who live in ‘at risk’ areas to make sure they are prepared and have signed up for emergency flood warnings from the Environment Agency.

“There are other measures we can take and I have asked the Agency to update me on work that has been carried out across West Worcestershire to prevent river and brook blockages which often exacerbate flood problems.

“We all hope for another mild and dry winter but it is always best to prepare in case our notorious winter weather takes a turn for the worse.”

Tenbury was hit by major flooding 10 years ago that resulted in some businesses being closed for many months.

This resulted in calls for a flood defence scheme for the town.

However, experts from the Environment Agency estimated that the time that an effective scheme would cost £5 million and under the Government rules the benefit did not justify the cost.

Engineers have determined that the only effective solution for Tenbury is a flood wall around the town because other options such as lower the bed of the River Teme and creating a storage area for water upstream of the town would not work.

Harriett Baldwin has pledged to help to find funding solutions for a problem which she and Mark Willis, Mayor of Tenbury says will happen again.