ALMOST 100 residents of a flood-ravaged market town attended a public meeting yesterday to discuss the possibility of major flood defences being built.

But there was little to warm the hearts of the people of Tenbury Wells on a freezing cold Saturday morning, as Environment Agency officials confirmed there is no funding available to build the town’s proposed £5 million flood defence scheme for at least the next three to five years.

They did, however, pledge to take action this year on clearing some of the branches, fallen trees, shingle banks and other assorted debris which angry residents say are blocking local waterways and causing serious flash flooding.

“We will be coming back this year to do as much work as we can,” said Paul Tullett, regional manager of the Environment Agency. “We will do what we can to alleviate it.”

Tenbury was one of the towns worst affected by the disastrous floods of 2007, and in response the Environment Agency has drawn up a £5 million scheme to build new protective walls and embankments around the town centre. The agency believes the scheme is cost-effective and is keen to implement it. However, the funds are not available to do so.

“The funding is worked out on a national basis,” Mr Tullett said. “There are other schemes around the country with a higher cost-benefit ratio, and so there is no funding available for this scheme for the next three to five years.

“But we are keen to promote it – we do want to get it built.”

The meeting at Tenbury Community Centre was organised and chaired by local Conservative party parliamentary candidate Harriett Baldwin, and attended by a raft of local politicians from town, district, county and European level.

After hearing business owners and worried residents express their fears for the future if defences are not built, Mrs Baldwin said it was important to investigate every possible avenue of funding.

“What has come through loud and clear today is we can’t have a situation where this town again goes through the trauma of 2007,” she said. “We need to get this scheme in place as soon as we can.”

West Midlands Tory MEP Philip Bradbourne told the audience he would lobby for European funding towards the project. And the cabinet member for finance at Worcestershire County Council, Councillor Adrian Hardman, said County Hall might be able to pledge some money towards the scheme – if the rest of the funding was found elsewhere.