Local leaders commit to reducing flooding risks

South Yorkshire will start building a better future over the next 12 months, with Mayor Dan Jarvis and local leaders announcing a £68m package to improve infrastructure and reduce the risk of flooding.

That £68m includes £21.35m from the Mayoral Combined Authority’s newly devolved ‘gainshare’ money, which will fund new bricks-and-mortar investment to revitalise the region’s towns and high streets. The devolved funds will support major projects in each of South Yorkshire’s four local authority, including: • £3.6m for Barnsley’s key

Glassworks regeneration project, including a state-ofthe-art new community library, new market spaces, and new town square – giving a new heart to the town centre • £4.6m to fund a pilot for zero emission electric buses in Doncaster and retrofitting homes across the Borough • £4.35m for a new business centre in Rotherham, and further investment in Rotherham Bus Interchange • £8.8m to further fund

Sheffield’s transformative

Heart of the City project around the Peace Gardens and

Fargate; work on Stocksbridge

High Street; and brownfield housing schemes.

In addition, the MCA is putting another £5.5m of its own funds into flood prevention, to maximise the impact of money already secured from government and accelerate the delivery of eight of the 27 schemes that form our South Yorkshire priority programme. This includes areas like Bentley that were badly hit in the 2019 floods, but the schemes cover the whole region.

The spending announced is just one part of a wider long-term recovery and renewal plan worth up to £860m. This year the City Region will make some £357m of investment into South Yorkshire, the Combined Authority’s largest annual budget since its formation in 2014. In addition, the MCA has agreed a programme to leverage the additional funding unlocked by devolution to borrow up to £500m for future projects to transform the region.

Dan Jarvis, the Mayor of Sheffield City Region, said: “We’re putting money into our towns and our community, rebuilding the infrastructure that we need to give our people better opportunities and better lives. Rather than wait around for a Government whose version of levelling up is to help the places that are already doing well, we’re taking our destiny into our own hands.

“I’m determined to push the pace on protecting our communities from the threat of flooding which has been so painfully demonstrated in recent years. The Government has been slow to act, and while our pressure has yielded some results, there are still too many gaps. We’re investing in the hope of spurring the Government to join us and give South Yorkshire the protection it deserves.” In 2021/22 the MCA proposed budget totals some £357m, the largest since the MCA’s formation in 2014. This includes direct investment, from sources including the Transforming Cities Fund, Getting Building Fund, Local Growth Fund, and others, which will go to support the following priorities: • Jobs and apprenticeships, and helping people find them • Helping businesses to survive and thrive • Revitalising high streets and building homes • Getting people moving with better transport, by foot, bike, bus, tram and train • Protecting the planet –retrofitting homes and improving flood defences.

The River Don flooding in 2019