THE LEADER of Worcester City Council has said residents and business owners will get all the help they need as the flood clean-up continues.
The council has made an extra £50,000 available from next month to provide further help with the recovery with work underway to decide how this money should be used.
Staff are continuing to clean the pavements, roads and paths affected by last month’s floods and the city council is leading the response team supporting residents in the 45 homes which were flooded.
Every one of those households has been contacted by one of five teams, each consisting of a Worcestershire Regulatory Services Environmental Health Officer and a volunteer from either Crisis Support UK or the British Red Cross.
Coun Adrian Gregson said: “We need to get this work done now for the good of our residents and worry about the cost later.
“We know money will be available from both our own funding and cash that the Government will be releasing in due course, but we’re making sure that the vital recovery work is not held up.
“We don’t believe one size fits all when it comes to helping householders recover from the floods, so our teams have been providing appropriate support for each resident.
“This has included moving furniture, supplying dehumidifiers, removing sodden carpets, cleaning the houses of particularly vulnerable residents and organising skips for some residents.”
A separate dedicated team has also been working to help the 21 city businesses that were flooded.
The recovery operation has been supported by the good will of local employers. Npower and Tesco have both provided volunteers, and the supermarket chain also donated 50 cleaning kits for residents, consisting of cloths, gloves, disinfectant, kitchen towels and other materials.
“I want to thank every organisation that has worked hard to provide resources to ensure anything that needed doing has been done and, where possible, done promptly,” Coun Gregson added.
“In particular I want to pay tribute to the key agencies, including Worcestershire County Council, West Mercia Police, Public Health England, Worcestershire Regulatory Services, West Midlands Ambulance Service, Severn Trent Water, Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, Western Power and the Environment Agency.
“Worcester is quickly getting back to normal thanks to all their efforts, and I’d like to give a special thanks to all the city council staff who have worked round the clock to support the city, its residents and its businesses through this recovery period.”
