A NEW £350,000 water tank is set to be delivered early next year to help tackle persistent flooding in Thorpe Hall Avenue.
Following a water summit at Leigh Sailing Club on Friday, Dr Robin Price, quality and environment director for Anglian Water, revealed the tank, which is currently in its design stage, is being planned to help catch excess rainwater in the Thorpe Bay road.
It comes after multiple floods on the road over the past year with several motorists getting stuck in floodwater, and furious residents calling for something to be done.
A crunch meeting was held in March between residents, Anglian Water bosses and Southend Council after serious flooding left roads and pavements submerged and forced manhole covers to burst off.
“We’ve been discussing Thorpe Hall Avenue and we shared our plans and the approach we are taking,” Dr Price said.
“It’s going to be a community-led approach, what’s clear is there is excess surface water getting into the sewage system.
“We’re investing £350,000 in a storage system in partnership with the council, which will be one of the largest storage tanks we have in our region.”
He added it could be delivered as soon as March next year, with sign off from Southend Council expected “any day now”.
“It will be a short-to-medium term solution to lessen the impact of flood risk for residents,” he continued.
“We’re developing community-led plans which we can be a part of to minimise the amount of surface water finding its way into the system which is the root cause of the flooding issues residents are seeing.”
Dr Price also confirmed there were not “many options forthcoming” from Anglian Water’s initial tender process to secure a contractor to deliver its £2million “green oasis” plans for Marine Parade.
The project, close to City Beach, would include a mini stream and rain gardens to tackling flooding on Southend seafront.
Anglian Water will soon be sending the contract back out to tender, as Dr Price added he expects the process to end within the next few weeks, but Southend Council is leading on the project.
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