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THE Prime Minister was met with heckles of “traitor” as he visited Worcestershire to see ongoing efforts to tackle flooding.
Boris Johnson arrived on the banks of the River Severn in Bewdley and was taken to view temporary flood defences by Environment Agency staff.
The town has been overwhelmed by flood water in recent weeks with homes and businesses inundated.
Mr Johnson said he would “get Bewdley done”, as he spoke to residents affected.
And he pledged that funding for flood defences would be doubled in this week’s Budget.
The Prime Minister said he had discussed with Environment Agency officials what “permanent defences” can be installed.
Overwhelmed
Mr Johnson added: “We are doubling the funding for flood defences to £5.2billion and we’re also going to be looking at all the things we can do upstream.”
This year was the wettest February in the UK since records began in 1862, with more than three times the average rainfall.
The PM said: “I’m here today to look at the recovery of Bewdley from the flooding, it has badly affected a lot of residents here.”
He also thanked the Environment Agency and emergency services, before adding that he would also “look at what we can do to make sure this doesn’t happen again”.
When told some homes had been overwhelmed by as much as 2ft of water, the PM said he was “so sorry to hear it”. Mr Johnson was also asked why he did not visit flood-hit communities when the waters were at their peak.
He said: “It’s too easy for a PM to come to a place in the middle of an emergency, it’s not so easy frankly for the emergency services. What they have to do is then break off and gold command has to find somewhere to brief you, everybody has to gather.
“They’re diverted from work for hours and hours.
“What I’ve been doing since the flooding began is coordinating the their national response but also looking at what we can do in the next months and years to ensure this country really is ready to cope with the impacts of flooding.”
Meanwhile, extra cash to be announced in the Budget will help to build 2,000 new flood and coastal defence schemes and better protect 336,000 properties in England over the next six years.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said communities have been “hit hard” by severe flooding and it was “right that we invest to protect towns, families, and homes across the UK”.
The funding – which doubles the £2.6billion spent on flood defences between 2015 and 2021 – will be available for every region from April 2021.
Mr Johnson was previously asked how deluged communities could feel reassured when many of the flood barriers were breached. He said: “The problem with these barriers is that they were overtopped.
“They are great bits of kit but when you have a big flood like that, they’re not going to be effective.
“The things we have to look at are the rules which currently say that you can’t put in permanent defences when you’ve only got a small number of households potentially affected.
“The case we need to make is it’s not just the number of households, it’s also the economic damage, it’s the damage to confidence, all the rest of it in the town.
“That is how, working with the Environment Agency, we now want to make progress.”