Gloucestershire County Council’s Cabinet Champion for Flooding has met with the Environment Minister to discuss the county’s flood work.

Last week, the Minister Richard Beynon announced £2million for local councils in England to help fund Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments, (PFRA’s).

Mr Beynon made the announcement at a meeting of the Local Government Flood Forum, a group that was formed by Gloucestershire County Council in 2007.

Cllr Vernon Smith, Cabinet Champion for Flooding, said: “I was very pleased to hear that this money will be made available to undertake further flood work and we will be submitting a bid.

“It speaks volumes about the success of our work in Gloucestershire that Richard Benyon, the Minister responsible for flooding, chose to make this announcement at the Local Government Flood Forum, an organisation which was set up by Gloucestershire County Council.”

After the meeting Cllr Smith was introduced to the Minister.

He added: “I had a very positive discussion with Mr Beynon. I used the opportunity to highlight some of the work that has taken place in Gloucestershire since 2007.

“We also talked about the importance of encouraging people, who live and work in areas that are at risk of flooding, to take practical steps to make their homes and businesses more resilient.

“We all know the devastation that flooding can cause, the 2007 floods caused misery for thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses across the county.

“More extreme rainfall is an unavoidable consequence of climate change, so it is really important that we all take steps to ensure we are prepared.”

At the meeting, the Minister also announced the publication of a draft strategy for building local authority skills and knowledge in flood risk management.

Gloucestershire County Council is hoping to host a river and flood engineering foundation student.

If successful, this post will be part funded by the government and will, when the individual has completed their training, provide the county council with additional expertise.