Ministers must act on flooding

Communities still left at risk

AS YORKSHIRE wakes up today to assess the extent of the flooding damage caused by Storm Christoph, the anxiety felt across the county is a sad indictment of years of Government inaction.

Yet again, householders are likely to face the heartbreak of seeing their homes and belongings ruined, bringing months of disruption to their lives and massive repair bills. And for businesses already struggling as result of the economic damage wrought by the pandemic, the potential devastation of being flooded could not come at a worse possible time.

The despair at the prospect of being flooded once again is underpinned by anger at a disgraceful lack of Government action. This newspaper has made repeated calls over many years for a strategic review into the flood risk in Yorkshire. We have also demanded a region-wide summit on flooding, yet successive Governments have displayed a dismal sluggishness in recognising that only a comprehensive plan to protect the entire county will suffice.

Only last October, Environment Secretary George Eustace limited a summit to South Yorkshire, ignoring the fact that communities in West, North and East Yorkshire have also been repeatedly devastated. This failure to regard the region as a whole when considering how best to mitigate the risk, or plan defences, is simply unacceptable.

Storm Christoph has, on this occasion, posed the greatest threat to South Yorkshire, but there are many more weeks of winter left to endure, and the grim reality is that over their course, other areas of our county are likely to be in jeopardy. It is grossly unfair that Yorkshire’s residents should be left to face the economic and emotional impact of flooding as a result of Government inaction. Ministers must delay no longer and give all of Yorkshire proper protection.