Concern for kids on return to school
RESIDENTS whose homes were devastated by floods in 2019 are still waiting to receive money promised to them by the government.
Those whose homes were deluged by flood water say the delays mean they “live in fear” of another flood while waiting for the payouts that were pledged 16 months ago by Boris Johnson.
The Property Flood Resilience is there to help owners affected by floods during the last two years and is worth up to £5,000.
But The Examiner’s sister website, Mirror Online, has revealed that councils in some of the hardest-hit regions have only paid out a fraction of the grants to stricken residents.
The delay in the Government-backed schemes has been blamed on the “complex” Defra guidance councils have to follow.
Flood victim Suzanne Stankard, from
Mytholmroyd in the Calder Valley, said she sent her ‘expression of interest’ for the grant last May and is still waiting for work to start, including a flood gate fitted and raised electrics.
“A couple of weeks ago everyone on our row lifted all their furniture upstairs when we were warned we could be flooded again,” she said. “You do live in fear.
“It took me three hours on my own to take my furniture upstairs to safety. We were worried. I thought it’s just typical that I’d be flooded again before I get the flood gates in.
“The council told me they are a small team and it was taking them longer than anticipated.
“It is now nine months since I first completed a form expressing my interest. Now I will have to wait and see when the builders can complete the work.”
But Ms Stankard, an art lecturer, says she spent five months waiting for her council to give her details of an approved surveyor.
In the end she found her own. Last September, Defra extended the deadline by nine months to give local authorities more time to process the grants which are also available for eligible businesses.
A Defra spokesperson said: “The Property Flood Resilience Scheme enables people to make their homes and businesses more resilient and better protected from future flooding – helping them build back better and greener, while also providing a boost for local economies.
“The scheme is administered through local authorities and was recently extended in recognition of the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic – and we continue to engage with local authorities to ensure the scheme is delivered effectively.”
But West Yorkshire councils said the reason it has taken so long is because of the Defra rules.
They pointed out the Government scheme requires a survey, quotes which they have to approve, the arrangement of the work by the home owner, a second survey to check the work, then invoices need to be checked.
I thought it’s just typical that I’d be flooded again before I get the flood gates in.
MENTAL health specialists are expecting a surge in referrals when children return to school, adding to a crisis that has been growing over lockdown.
Clinicians warned that it is likely children who might have been suffering declining mental health for months will only come to light once teachers get to see them faceto-face. They said they had witnessed a worrying rise in eating disorders, self-harm and psychosis among young people since the start of the pandemic.
Dr Karen Street, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “We’re all just feeling we’re going to see lots of slightly lost, sad, confused, anxious, disorientated kids coming back into school.” Dr Bernadka Dubicka, chair of the child and adolescent faculty at the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, described the impact of the pandemic as “a crisis on top of a crisis”. She said: “We had a pre-existing crisis in child and adolescent mental health before the pandemic.”