Co-ordinated flood prevention plan ‘will stop the finger pointing’ says Miliband

A MASSIVE Yorkshire flood prevention plan has been praised by a senior MP who said the arrangement “stops the finger pointing” and provides a more co-ordinated approach to improving defences.

The Labour MP for Doncaster North, Ed Miliband, said the

South Yorkshire flood prevention plan involving councils, the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and the Government was “absolutely vital” in avoiding catastrophes such as the deluges of 2007 and 2019.

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Plan will tackle the climate emergency by combining the construction of flood defences with nature-based solutions, looking at the whole of the South Yorkshire region and how water can be managed from the peaks to the sea.

Mr Miliband, who is also the Shadow Business Secretary, said: “This is good news for Doncaster, my constituency in particular and South Yorkshire generally.

“We’ve made good progress but there is, of course, more work to be done. We can’t have another situation like 2007 and 2019 and what happened in Bentley and Fishlake.

“Part of the problem in the past has been you’ve got each partner, whether it’s the council or the Environment Agency from one position or another and having their own ideas and how to go forward. Properly getting them together is the right way to go about this.”

In response to the 2019 floods, £20m of flood repair works have been completed by the Environment Agency, including a £3m scheme at Fishlake to repair defences in the village.

Bentley Ings Pumping Station in Doncaster has undergone a £12m upgrade to better protect 1,669 homes from surface water flooding. More schemes are planned along the River Don.