EFFORTS to better protect the district from flooding disasters in future will go under the microscope next week.

Bradford Council had faced criticism over its response to the devastation brought about during the 2015 Boxing Day floods.

And last year, an in-depth scrutiny review into its response to the floods made seven recommendations for improvements.

Now on Thursday the same corporate scrutiny committee will consider what progress has been made since then.

One committee member, opposition Conservative leader Councillor Simon Cooke, told the Telegraph & Argus he felt progress was still too slow.

He said there had been some good work in helping communities to become more resilient against flooding, although there was “more that could be done”.

But he said in terms of mitigating future floods by building the “key bits of flood infrastructure”, there was a lot of work still ahead.

A new report, by strategic director of place Steve Hartley, lists a number of key improvements the Council has made since the 2015 floods, including setting up a permanent stock of 6,000 sandbags and around 2,000 other water blocks.

Road drains are now inspected on either a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on how likely they are to get clogged up, and flood information packs have been sent out to 6,000 of the most at-risk properties.

But more work needs to be done before any big flood alleviation projects can begin, the report reveals.

The Environment Agency and Bradford Council have finished desktop studies looking into how to better protect fifteen areas across the district.

Now more detailed studies are either under way or in the pipeline, looking to highlight the exact improvements needed and how they might be funded.

One study is under way into the Bradford Beck along the Canal Road Corridor, another is looking at the River Worth and its tributaries and a third is looking at watercourses in Esholt village.

A major study into the whole catchment of the River Aire through the district has yet to start but should be commissioned within this financial year, the report says.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, executive member for regeneration, housing, planning and transport, said: “The floods that hit our district two years ago had a devastating effect and I know how hard residents and communities have worked to get back on their feet and the Council has done all it can to support them in that.

“This report shows our progress so far, that work is ongoing and has not stopped but we know there’s always more to do.

“We’ve made good progress in repairing and strengthening our highways structures that were damaged in the floods and have been working closely with the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water in assessing flood risk across the district to identify where we can do more in the future.

“The scrutiny process has been helpful in giving us the opportunity to engage with councillors on what we’ve been doing and how we’ve reviewed our own responses to flooding. Bradford Council takes flooding very seriously and I think this report shows that.”