THREE community groups, with the support of Monmouthshire County Council (MCC), have embarked on a project to tackle flooding in the Monmouth area.

With plans to find a natural solution to flood alleviation, members of the Monmouth community are encouraged to contact the group to help with the project.

Vivien Mitchell from Transition Monmouth said: “‘Flooding hits road network’ was the headline in the Beacon on 6th January 2016, and having read the MCC Flood Risk Management Plan (which you can find on the MCC website) some of us started talking about the cause of the recent flooding, and we started talking to the County Council.

“The result was that members representing Transition Monmouth, Monmouth Partnership Forum and Monmouth Town Council, with the support of MCC, agreed that we should aim to establish a community group to seek funding from the Vale of Usk Rural Development Plan (RDP) to research the feasibility of using natural solutions to flood alleviation in the Monmouth area.

“To use land and watercourse management to ‘slow the flow’, measures which were widely reported over the winter period that had achieved considerable success in Pickering in North Yorkshire, the Culm Grasslands in Devon, the Somerset Levels, Montgomeryshire, Glasgow, Doncaster and elsewhere.

“Fortuitously, the RDP has funding under various ‘themes’ and is very keen to help us in formulating a bid for a feasibility study.

“This is a project that affects the whole community, and it has a myriad of possible solutions.

“Concurrently we will be looking at what we can do for ourselves to provide match funding for the RDP bid.

“We would like to hear from anyone who knows of land suitable for tree and shrub planting. Yes, even one tree in your garden will make a difference.

“Or if you know of water courses that could be adapted to hold more water, or if there is land where a bund could form a temporary pond (or lake!) please let us know.

“We are looking for participants to join the next step, setting up a Monmouth group to take this project forward.”

If you would like to participate, email [email protected]