Herefordshire is to get nearly £1.3 million over the next five years to fund “natural” flood prevention measures.

The money from the Environment Agency will pay for natural flood management (NFM) on seven smaller river areas around the county, within whose catchments are 98 properties “at very significant risk” of flooding.

The seven are the Bodenham brooks, Brimfield brook, the Cheaton, Cogwell and Ridgemoor brooks, Dulas brook, the Red, Norton and Twyford brooks, Pentaloe brook and Tedstone brook catchments.

All seven feed directly or indirectly into the river Wye, and all currently fail to meet official water quality targets.

Unlike “hard” engineering to prevent or cope with flooding, NFM measures mimic natural ways of holding up the flow of stormwater.

These include creating leaky dams of natural materials and attenuation areas which fill up with floodwater before releasing it slowly, and planting trees and hedges.

It can also cover changes to farming methods to prevent run-off, such as planting cover crops and under-sowing maize with companion crops.

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Herefordshire Council’s project report said it sees these as “an integral part of the sustainable management and reduction of flood risk within Herefordshire”.

Research shows that NFM can reduce peak flows during flood events by an average of 20 per cent, it noted.

The measures should also create and improve habitats for wildlife, capture carbon, and reduce nutrient run-off and soil loss into watercourses, which have left the Wye special area of conservation (SAC) in a failing environmental condition.

The project will be delivered in partnership with local organisations, landowners, businesses and communities. Landowners will be advised about the NFM opportunities on their land, and what financial support is available to put these into practice.

The money will also pay for a dedicated natural flood management project officer, and is expected to bring in “a similar amount of external funds to help deliver and maintain NFM measures”, the council said.

An earlier pilot project in the county, begun in 2017, gave more than £80,000 to funding measures in the same seven areas, in collaboration with over 145 landowners, creating or enhancing over 6.2 square kilometres of habitat and improving over 8km of river.

And though analysis of the impact of these has shown only “low” reduction in run-off attenuation, “to date only a small percentage of the proposed NFM measures have been implemented on a small percentage of the identified catchment”, the council's report said.