A COUPLE from a village near Oswestry have raised concerns over what they say is an inaccurate assessment of their home being in a high flood-risk area.

Sam Evans and his wife, Tibs, live in a cottage in Ball Lane, Maesbury.

But after having issues insuring their property, they now believe it along with all the other properties in the lane, are falsely being assessed as a high flood risk.

Mr Evans, 83, said: “It is a disgrace – I know we all live close to the Morda Brook, but it’s a well-behaved little tributary of the River Vyrnwy and runs between quite steep banks where it runs past our homes.

“As a working journalist covering the Oswestry area over a period of 20 years from the 1960s, I can categorically state that the area where I now live has never flooded.”

The couple found out they were in a flood risk area after they tried to renew their house insurance with Liverpool Victoria (LV).

After doing some checks LV said the policy was cancelled due to the postcode falling into a flood risk area, so the couple tried another insurance company, where they received the same response.

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“It looks as if someone with nothing better to do has looked at a map, seen the River Morda marked and decided we are an insurance flood risk,” Mr Evans added.

They finally managed to get insurance at nearly double the expected price through a broker, but with the flooding liability excluded.

“This doesn’t bother me, because there is no flood risk, but I feel cheated by the system.”

A spokesperson for LV said that were sorry to hear about Mr Evans' experience.

They said: “Since Mr Evans took out his original policy with us in 2020, our view of certain risks has changed with the area he currently lives in being at high-risk for floods, we explained that we unfortunately couldn’t offer him home insurance."

They added: “In recognition of the fact that Mr Evans has been a customer for a number of years, we are now contacting him to see what home insurance we can offer.”

LV also explained that they base their calculations on what the Environment Agency classes as a risk.

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The Environment Agency (EA) explained: “The scale of the risk will vary according to how far away the property is from the source of flooding, the height of the property above the ground, and other factors such as any flood defences in the area.” 

“Anyone with properties at flood risk can get more information about finding affordable insurance on the Floodre website or they can contact the National Flood Forum for independent help and advice on insurance and reducing the impacts of flooding on their property.”