NORTHWICH school children have been helping to give the River Weaver a new lease of life in the latest stage of the Environment Agency’s flood risk management scheme for the town.

Children from Witton Church Walk Primary School were invited along to Town Bridge Park in Northwich this week to help install floating habitats as part of the new flood risk management scheme. The floating ecosystem is a great example of how habitat can be created where there is little space.

The scheme, which began in the spring of 2015, has seen construction of the flood defences along the banks of the River Dane and River Weaver in Northwich town centre, and has been the product of a successful partnership between the Environment Agency and Cheshire West and Chester, with the contracting work undertaken by a consortium of Black & Veatch and Galliford Try (GBV).

The construction is now nearing completion with the majority of the flood defences installed.

The completed scheme will reduce the risk of flooding from both rivers and help to protect many properties and businesses.

As part of the environmental enhancement plans, the children helped to plant and install floating habitats that were clipped onto the vertical face of the flood defences at the Bull Ring.

The children started the day with a talk from Biomatrix Water explaining the benefits of the floating ecosystems, followed by getting their hands dirty planting various grass and flowers, donated by the Land and Water Group, and finally releasing the habitat into the river. Supplied by Biomatrix, the floating habitat is being installed by Environment Agency staff on behalf of GBV.

The diverse range of aquatic plants will help to soften the aesthetics of the flood defense wall, providing a naturalised waterscape in this city center location.

David Brown, senior flood risk officer at the Environment Agency, said: “The floating ecosystem gives us chance to add some habitat into this town centre engineered scheme. As the scheme nears completion, it is good to have these elements to add environmental value.

"We are grateful for the children’s help and involvement in installing the works and hope they will be able to enjoy watching these and the other environmental mitigation works we’ve undertaken, such as tree planting, grow in the future”.