THE ENVIRONMENT Agency has been given the go-ahead by Cornwall Council for a flood defence scheme in Bude.

The town has a history of the river flooding, particularly at The Strand and The Crescent adjacent to the River Neet.

It is also at risk of coastal flooding when high tides coincide with extreme storms resulting in waves propagating up the River Neet and going over the defences. Waves also strike Nanny Moore’s Bridge resulting in water flooding on to Ergue-Gaberic Way and the adjacent Leven Cottages.

To tackle this, a new 160 metre flood wall will be constructed and built into, and form part of, the landward (south-western) side of the existing flood defence embankment.

The new wall will be built to the same average height as the embankment and be a maximum of 675mm wide matching the style used on the wall on the south side of the river.

The proposal includes a stoplog at Nanny Moore’s bridge which will only be used during flooding and would not represent a permanent change to the bridge structure.

The stoplog channels, stoplogs and storage unit will be colour matched to the Bude Breakwater Blue colour of the existing fence posts and rails.

The conditional planning approval says there must be a planted wildflower buffer forward of the proposed wall adjacent to Ergue-Gaberic Way.

It also states any trees or plants, which within five years from the completion of the development die, are removed or become seriously damaged or diseased, must be replaced in the next planting season with others of a similar size and species as those originally planted.