A FLOOD defence for Tenbury could be built like a jigsaw puzzle - piece by piece - as funding becomes available and some bits might be done by volunteers.

These were among the options discussed at a public meeting held at The Regal following a pledge by Tenbury MP Harriett Baldwin to try to help find funding if the people of the town want a defence.

But Mark Willis, mayor of Tenbury, and Christian Wilcox, an engineer from the Environment Agency, made it clear that the town has limited options.

Solutions such as providing a storage area for water upstream of the town, dredging channels, and lowering the bed of the River Teme have all been ruled out leaving a four foot flood wall around much of the Tenbury as the only option.

However, this would have to be a permanent structure because temporary barriers that work in other places would not be suitable for Tenbury as the river levels rise so rapidly that there would not be time to deploy them before a flood struck the town.

Temporary defences would also be expensive and would not be eligible any Government funding.

“Tenbury has flooded before and it will flood again so it is a case of when and not if,” said Cllr Willis.

“In the end it all comes down to money.”

Christian Wilcox said Government rules mean that for every £1 spent on a flood defence scheme there would need to be £8 worth of benefit.

The meeting was told that this puts Tenbury at a serious disadvantage as a greater priority is given to the protection of residential properties rather than businesses and it is the town centre shops and pubs that are most vulnerable in the town.

Under the present rules this would mean that Tenbury would only be entitled to £700,000 of the estimated £6 million cost of a proper flood defence.

The protection of Tenbury would involve a series of walls and earth mounds. One possible option might be to build these a bit at a time as money becomes available and Mrs Baldwin wondered if it might be an option for local farmers to do some of the earthworks.

However, a feasibility study would need to examine if a jigsaw approach would be practical. Two issues that would need considering are if there would be any benefit if a flood came when only part of the defence is completed and also whether in this situation it could actually make things worse.

The flood in 2007, which left some businesses under water and in some cases resulted in them being closed for many months, was classified as being close to a one in a 100 year event.

However, it was pointed out that this is a statistical measure and a similar flood could occur anytime.

Climate change and global warming could also increase the frequency and severity of flooding.

Cllr Willis said it was important to know if the people of the town want a flood defence as the next stage would be a full feasibility study that would need funding.