Carlisle's MP has said she will do all she can to push for the city's flood defences to be finished as soon as possible.

Julie Minns has highlighted Carlisle's unfinished flood defences as one of the key priorities to tackle as part of her term as MP - and for ministers to be aware of the importance of this within her first year.

The Environment Agency has finished phase two of the flood defence works, but is currently looking into the feasibility of options for phase three which will cover the Willow Holme and Denton Holme areas.

The agency anticipates that the outcome of this review will be available by spring 2025.

Ms Minns said: "There's a lot of places that flood, so there's a lot of demand on the government, but I want to make sure that I'm doing all I can to push Carlisle to the top of that list."

READ MORE FROM OUR INTERVIEW WITH JULIE MINNS: 

The city experienced some flooding in May this year after 2.5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours which led to the train line being partially covered in water. 

But, the last time Carlisle experienced a major flood was in 2015 following Storm Desmond.  The Civic Centre and Hardwicke Circus were underwater with businesses and homes in the flood plain areas being devastated by the impact. 

2005 saw the "worst flood to affect Carlisle since 1822" and led to three people dying across the county. 

Ms Minns said: "If there's one thing that ministers will know, and I've already raised it in the house, is Carlisle's flood defences need to be completed because we cannot go through another repeat of what happened in 2005 and 2015.

"It's awful for the individuals and it's devastating for our businesses as well so we just can't go through that."

In July 2019, the £25 million flood management scheme got underway around the Warwick Road area with hopes for the defences to protect 1,600 homes. 

The Environment Agency anticipated at the time that all three phases of the scheme would be completed by 2021.

Ms Minns said: "One of the things that I think we will be doing differently, and we were very clear that we would, is the [flood resilience] task force that we'll establish will make sure that when projects are first put forward, actually, they stay on track.

"We've got to get a lot better at delivering infrastructure projects. I think the task force will really help."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We are looking into the feasibility of a number of options to further reduce flood risk in the Denton Holme, Shaddongate and Willow Holme areas of Carlisle.

"These areas of the city all benefit from existing flood defences but future options are being developed to reduce that risk further. These options include interventions upstream of the city, designed to reduce the size of large flood flows reaching Carlisle, as well as interventions through the city.

“To develop and progress any flood risk management scheme it must be both financially and technically viable; be able to secure the permits and permissions required by law; and to be acceptable to the community and its stakeholders.

“Outcomes of this review and feasibility stage will be available by Spring 2025.”

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