Residents join forces to make flood defences

Neighbours fill sandbags after £30m protection scheme stalls

- By CHRIS GEE

A COMMUNITY denied muchneeded flood protection because of the £30m cost have created their own makeshift defences.

More than 30 residents of Riverside Drive, Prestolee, Kearsley, filled and tied sandbags and added them to the mound on top of the banks of the River Irwell near their homes.

Many residents are certain that previously installed informal, flood defences on the embankment funded by them saved their houses from flooding on New Year's Day, 2025.

The work last Saturday was to fill in low points identified during heavy rainfall at New Year.