A year after Tenbury Wells flooded three times and within a week the town was flooded again, Environment Agency figures show over half of those displaced last summer are still not back in their homes.
About 150 properties were affected, and a year on, 85 households have not moved back in.
In spite of this, the agency maintains flood defences are not an option for the town.
In response to the latest floods, Tenbury Town Council issued a statement saying: “Tenbury Town Council is concerned at the lack of action taken by the relevant authorities – in particular the refusal by the Environment Agency to provide the town with flood defences.
“Tenbury Town Council has no direct powers or funds to install flood defences. Therefore it is only able to manage situations concerning flooding after it has occurred. This is unacceptable.”
It continued: “Tenbury Town Council will continue to exert the maximum amount of pressure on the authorities to provide Tenbury with the protection needed.”
The Environment Agency carried out a review following the 2007 floods, but concluded that flood defences for Tenbury: “Were neither technically or financially feasible.” The agency believes this is still the case.
Ben Ashmore, spokesman for the Environment Agency, told the Journal: “We have every sympathy for the people of Tenbury but flooding is a natural event and we can’t always prevent it.
We spent three months on the Kyre Brook, which caused the flooding on Friday, and work there has now been completed. On the Teme, we are still looking at the possibility of doing work.
“We can’t defend Tenbury because the length and complexity of the defence required would render it so expensive that it would not be feasible in terms of benefit to the community. Such decisions have to be justifiable.”
