Tracy Brabin and Leeds City Council leader on the 'pride' of the city 10 years on from 'devastating' Boxing Day floods

Today (Friday) marks 10 years since thousands of businesses and homes became submerged after days of rainfall was topped off by Storm Eva.

The conditions led to the three waterways through Leeds - the River Aire, River Wharfe and Aire and Calder Navigation - becoming overwhelmed with flooding and reaching record levels.

The impact affected more than 3,300 properties in Leeds, of which 672 were commercial businesses, and the direct cost to the city was an estimated £36.8million - with a cost to the wider city region of more than £500million.

Over 1,000 volunteers helped in the direct aftermath and in the decade since over £200m has been spent on shoring up the city’s flood defences through the Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS) and other projects.

Reflecting on that faithful day, the leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor James Lewis, said: “The Boxing Day floods of 2015 directly impacted thousands of people and hundreds of businesses across the city, causing untold misery and impacting people’s health, wellbeing, livelihoods, and property.

“Ten years on from that dreadful day, we can take pride in the decade of dedication, partnership working and teamwork that has delivered some of the UK’s most robust flood defence infrastructure to mitigate the threat of a repeat flooding event.”

Coun Lewis referenced the refreshed Leeds Ambitions which were launched earlier this year as a way of mapping out how the city can continue to be “healthy, growing, thriving and resilient”. He said: “The work to increase our flood resilience impacts all these goals.

“We know that if Leeds FAS operates to its full potential just once, it will have saved more carbon cost than used to build the entire infrastructure.”

He said that the defences have helped build the city’s economy by ensuring the protection of businesses and infrastructure and making once flood-prone available for development.

Coun Lewis said: “But most importantly, our work over the past decade has helped protect our residents from the harm, both physical and mental, that flooding can bring.

“In 2015, my predecessor as Leader, Baroness Blake, said, ‘a preventable disaster like this must never happen again’. While we can never fully eradicate the threat of flooding from rivers or caused by surface water run-off, we can be very proud of the steps we have taken over the past decade to protect our beautiful city, its businesses, and its people as we move forward into an uncertain future for our climate.”

West Yorkshire Combined Authority helped support the development of the FAS in Leeds and other flood defence schemes across the county.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said: “Ten years on, we remember the devastation faced by communities across West Yorkshire, and the remarkable strength shown in the aftermath of the Boxing Day floods.

“We're determined to reduce the risk of this happening again, so together we are investing to boost our defences.

“This will ensure West Yorkshire is better prepared for generations to come.”