More support urged for flood defence spending (Cheltenham Liberal Democrats)

Cheltenham Liberal Democrats <info@cheltlibdems.org.uk>

More support urged for flood defence spending

September 20, 2007 11:52 AM

Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood today won the backing of the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton for a rapid increase in government flood defence spending and simplification of the confused web of agency responsibilities for flood defence and drainage maintenance.

The conference voted overwhelmingly to support the measures, moved by Martin in his role as the party's shadow environment minister. Martin praised the local emergency response but warned that the extreme weather suffered in Gloucestershire would become a more familiar feature of British weather, thanks to climate change. And he criticised both Gordon Brown and Severn Trent for their responses to the crisis.

In his speech to conference Martin said:

'The wonderful response of communities north and south to these floods was equalled only by the heroic efforts of the police, the military, fire and rescue, councils, the health services, local radio stations and everyone from Tesco to the RSPCA. We owe them all a huge debt of gratitude. And to the RNLI I'd say: we don't often see you in the middle of Gloucestershire but our thanks to you too.'

He went on: 'But, somewhere, sometime, this will happen again. With climate change, we expect those once in one hundred year floods will be happening every three years well before the end of the century. Climate change means more erratic weather, more storms, more floods, more droughts, more homes wrecked, more communities, businesses and lives at risk.'

Martin criticised Gordon Brown for appearing to promise more support than he actually had:

'Gordon now tells us flood defence spending is going up, to £800 million pounds a year. But this is Gordon "read the small print" Brown. It isn't £800 million now it's £800 million in 2010. And he isn't even promising to increase it year by year - we might well find it frozen until 2010.'

And he took Severn Trent and its regulator Ofwat to task for their failure to pay compensation for loss of water supply and highlighted the need for less confused responsibilities for flood defence:

'What a disgrace that Ofwat has already let them off the hook, leaving Severn Trent's poorest customers facing bigger bills, handing Severn Trent's richest shareholders bigger dividends and undermining everyone's confidence in the whole scheme.'

'And confidence is waning too in the complicated web of responsibilities for rivers, drains and culverts, for maintenance, flood defence and future planning. The motion would give a clear strategic oversight to the Environment Agency for all flood defence management, making it much clearer than it is today where the buck stops.'

Following the overwhelming vote to pass the policy motion, Martin commented:

'I'm delighted that the Liberal Democrats' national conference today recognized what Gloucestershire has been through and voted for much more committed action to help communities like ours.'