Roger Prestwood
I've always enjoyed designing and building things. Providing Bewdley with flood defences was a real challenge. It's a beautiful Georgian town and the residents were concerned about the visual impact of conventional flood defences. Somehow we had to put up invisible flood defences.
The solution, demountable defences, that only need appear when there is a risk of flooding had been used for some years in Germany but it still took a lot of meetings with local residents to persuade them the defences really would work. In the end the first phase of the defences was up and working in two years and the scheme has been a success. The street alongside the river has been revitalised and people feel secure in their homes again.
At another public meeting about the next phase of the scheme, residents from the upstream area that is now protected came along to tell sceptical residents downstream – 'trust this man, he will do the job'. These are the same people that a few years ago were sceptics themselves. That made me feel that all my efforts are worthwhile.
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