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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/14/tenbury-wells-flood-prone-worcestershire-town-abandoned-by-insurers>
"Walking through the centre of Tenbury Wells is like stepping into a postcard.
The independent shops are painted in cheerful colours and flowers spill out of
planters. Bunting festoons the lampposts, and the pubs are full, their
steamed-up windows glowing orange.
You would not know that just a few months ago, the Worcestershire town was a
wreck, destroyed by flood water, with windows smashed and shops gutted. The
inhabitants have worked hard to make it pristine again, a vision of the England
seen on chocolate boxes and in Christmas films.
But speak to the people who own the shops and you see the misery through the
stiff upper lips. Insurers have abandoned Tenbury, which means one more flood
could bankrupt the town.
“One more flood and I’m leaving,” said florist Richard Sharman, whose shop on
the corner of the high street was flooded four times last year. “I can’t get
contents insurance, I can’t afford to rebuild if we flood again, and my lease
is up at the end of December, so I just won’t renew it.”
Sharman did up the shop in 2023, when he moved in. Soon, it could join the
small but growing number of abandoned and derelict buildings on the high
street.
Climate breakdown is thought to be a driver behind the increasing frequency of
severe flooding in Tenbury, which sits between the River Teme and the Kyre
brook. Floods used to occur about once a decade. But now, deluges are an almost
annual occurrence, having hit in 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024.
Despite potentially being the first English town to become uninsurable owing to
floods, Tenbury is not going to be included in the government’s list of flood
schemes. Labour said it would give £2.65bn for flood and coastal erosion risk
management over two years to March 2026, but the town council has been informed
that Tenbury did not make the cut."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
