Govt cops flak after record floods
The Environment Secretary said the Government will ‘‘never be able to protect every single household’’ from flooding as Storm Dennis wreaked havoc across the UK.
Three people died over the weekend and thousands were evacuated from their homes as the number of flood warnings hit an all-time record. Conservative and Labour MPs have expressed anger at the Government’s response. Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley in West Yorkshire, said ‘‘precious little’’ has been done since the 2015 floods and told the Government to ‘‘pull its finger out’’.
The Environment Agency said further ‘‘significant’’ river and surface water flooding was expected this week. Parts of the UK saw winds of 144kmh while more than a month’s worth of rain fell in 48 hours over the weekend.
But George Eustice, the new Environment Secretary, insisted the Government had not been caught off guard and told Sky News: ‘‘We’ve done a huge amount – we can’t do anything about these extreme weather events but the steps we’ve taken have meant the impact of those weather events have affected fewer properties.’’
He blamed the ‘‘nature of climate change’’ for the scale of the damage and said: ‘‘We’ll never be able to protect every single household.’’
But Davies said: ‘‘My constituents who were flooded were the same people who were flooded on Boxing Day 2015. It’s not as if there hasn’t been enough time to do something. The Government needs to pull its finger out.
‘‘What has been done to stop it happening again? Precious little. If the Government’s got £100 billion of capital expenditure to spend on HS2, my constituents are perfectly entitled to think it’s got enough at its disposal to properly protect them from flooding.’’
On Sunday a man in his 60s died in the Tawe river in Wales. Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. In the Welsh village of Nantgarw, near Cardiff, entire streets were under water.
Jon Trickett, Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, whose Yorkshire constituency was among those affected by flooding, said: ‘‘They simply haven’t done what they said they would do. Two weekends running we’ve had the same problem in Yorkshire.
‘‘They’ve broken their word and people are suffering. They’ve done bits here and there but most of it is incomplete.
‘‘There are global changes to weather systems but we have known that for some time. We also know where the main pinch points are but we haven’t managed to deal with them at all. There were solemn promises made last time, ministers walking around in welly boots, and it just isn’t good enough. When people say these are left behind areas, they have been left behind over the last 10 years.
‘‘There’s got to be a sense of urgency and they just aren’t showing any sense that it really matters.’’
Speaking in York yesterday Eustice said: ‘‘Since 2015, we’ve introduced over 600 flood schemes nationally, we’ve spent about two and a half billion on flood defences, we’re planning to spend four billion over the next five years and the work we’ve done since 2015 has already protected over 200,000 homes.’’ – Telegraph Group
‘‘Two weekends running we’ve had the same problem in Yorkshire. They’ve broken their word and people are suffering.’’ Jon Trickett