Water firm to spend £16m on pumps

More than 8,000 homes in Hull were damaged in June's floods

A water company which was criticised over the summer floods in Hull has announced it is to spend £16m on improving the city's pumping stations.

A report published on Wednesday said Yorkshire Water had ignored repeated warnings about the state of its drainage and pumping systems.

The company now says £16m will be spent "to improve the flood resilience of its pumping infrastructure".

Customers' bills would not be increased as a result, Yorkshire Water said.

The money, which will be "re-prioritised" from its existing budget, will be used to upgrade equipment in East and West Hull and to make improvements in Bransholme.

'Unprecedented rainfall'

The announcement comes a day after Yorkshire Water said it would not pay compensation to people whose homes were damaged in June's floods, which affected more than 10,000 properties.

A company spokesman said: "Yorkshire Water is demonstrating its commitment to playing its part in protecting the city of Hull.

"But the company stresses that even with this investment the city could still flood, should it see a storm event of the same intensity experienced in June."

Graham Dixon, director of Yorkshire Water's environmental business unit, said: "The flooding in Hull was caused by unprecedented levels of rainfall and no system could have coped with the amount of rain that fell.

"Our pumping infrastructure performed well, pumping 50,000 litres per second out of the city which is equivalent to half the River Thames, but we are not complacent, which is why we are making significant further investment in Hull.

"Building bigger pumps will not solve Hull's flooding issues, however we recognise the importance of ensuring that our own systems are more flood resilient, which is why we are making this investment."