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'My flooded community could become a ghost town'

Mary Long-Dhonau Flood campaigner Mary Long-Dhonau, a woman with shoulder-length brown hair, sits on a wall by a flooded river. She is wearing a red coat and holding a red umbrella. A bridge is in the distance behind her and swans are swimming on the river.Mary Long-Dhonau
Flood campaigner Mary Long-Dhonau said investment in flood defences was needed across the country

Joan Lumley has been flooded three times since moving to a cottage in the centre of Tenbury Wells five years ago.

Having spent £11,000 on repairs to her Worcestershire home, the 81-year-old retired teacher wants to move nearer her son but is struggling to find a buyer.

"It's very stressful because you feel you can't move on," she said. "I feel trapped."

Ms Lumley was speaking as a report by the Environment Agency warned as many as eight million properties in England - one in four - could be at risk of flooding by 2050 because of climate change.

She said businesses were leaving Tenbury Wells because they were struggling to get insurance.

"It could become a ghost town," she warned.

Mary Long-Dhonau, a flood resilience campaigner, agreed.

She described flood defences across the country as "woefully inadequate" and said Tenbury Wells needed a large cash injection to build flood defences.

"Unless they get them now, it is going to become…the first victim of climate change," she said.

"And we really can't let that happen."

Darren Thompson An overhead shot looking down on a street flooded with muddy water. A white car sits in the water. The street is lined with shops and it is clear that the water is very high.Darren Thompson
Tenbury Wells was badly flooded during Storm Bert in November

The government has acknowledged that too many communities are at risk of flooding.

"That is why we have committed £2.4bn over the next two years to maintain, repair and build flood defences to protect communities across the country," said Floods Minister Emma Hardy.

Ms Long-Dhonau said she would like to see a partnership between Tenbury Wells and the West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge, which was also hit by Storm Bert last month.

She said business owners in Hebden Bridge have been working to make their premises "flood recoverable" and were much more resilient now.

"We could learn a lot from each other," she said.

For Joan Lumley, though, that might be too little, too late.

"I just want these flood defences," she said.

"They may not be perfect and they may not stop it all but my goodness they would help."

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