FLOOD-hit communities in Newton Poppleford and Tipton St John will be among those to benefit from a series of defence schemes totalling half a million pounds this year.

FLOOD-hit communities in Newton Poppleford and Tipton St John will be among those to benefit from a series of defence schemes, totalling half a million pounds, this year.

The S outh West Regional Flood Defence Committee last week pledged a ‘local levy’ of �546,242 for the coming financial year – a 10per cent increase on the level of funding for 2010.

The ‘local levy’ is additional cash raised through local authorities.

Money is crucial as it enables the Environment Agency, through the flood defence committee, to implement “locally important” schemes that are not eligible for national funding.

Some cash will be used to pay for construction works in both Newton Poppleford and Tipton St John. The villages and their residents suffered the consequences of flooding misery in 2008.

Newton Poppleford’s flood improvement scheme is “progressing well” with construction due to start this month and expected to take six weeks to complete, according to the Environment Agency (EA).

EA workers have begun to raise existing defences and a footbridge in Tipton St John.

Scores of communities at risk from flooding are benefiting from the levy money - which is being used to build flood alleviation schemes and increase home flood resilience measures.

A major contributors to the ‘local levy’ are Devon County Council (DCC).

“We are pleased that local authorities can provide this vital money because it can be used to fund smaller schemes that do not qualify for national funding and thereby benefit local communities,” said James Morrish, chairman of the South West Regional Flood Defence Committee.

“We are doing everything we can to help our local communities protect their families, homes and businesses. We can’t prevent flooding altogether, but we can help people to minimise flood risk or damage caused by flooding.”