MARTIN CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT ON FLOOD LESSONS (Cheltenham Liberal Democrats)

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

MARTIN CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT ON FLOOD LESSONS

October 23, 2007 4:45 PM

Residents protesting against plans to develop green belt land are joined by Martin Horwood and Chris Huhne.

Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood has used his position on the prestigious Communities and Local Government Select Committee to challenge government policy over new housing in flood risk areas. The Committee scrutinises the work of the Department for Communities and Local Government whose responsibilities include fire and rescue, housing and local and regional government. The committee was questioning senior officials over the department's performance for the last 12 months.

Martin praised the work of fire and rescue and local authority staff but asked if the department was seriously rethinking any of its policies in the light of the flood events in Gloucestershire this summer. He highlighted four areas where a rethink was needed:

• The government appears to be making no changes to its proposed housing numbers and locations despite the fact that many areas flooded which had not previously been identified as at risk. Martin quoted the example of Leckhampton south of Cheltenham where 360 new homes are planned on an area near Farm Lane that was underwater in July.

• There was no sign of a government rethink over the future of Gloucestershire's Tri-Service emergency response centre, despite its outstanding performance during the emergency. Fire control is still due to be moved to a regional centre in Taunton.

• The Bellwin compensation scheme for local authorities facing flood emergencies seemed to have failed at the first hurdle, immediately being raised from an 85% award against emergency costs to 100%, supplemented by further grants from central government and even an application to the European Union for more emergency funding. As an emergency scheme, Bellwin had almost immediately been superceded.

• The floods revealed a complex web of responsibilities for flood defence spending, especially where it related to culverts and surface water drainage. This includes water companies, the Environment Agency, local authorities and even householders themselves who seem to bear the ultimate legal responsibility in many cases. Martin asked if the Department would support a simplified scheme in which the buck clearly stopped with one body such as the Environment Agency.

Martin commented afterwards: "On most of these issues, the answers given by the Department were pretty evasive. I didn't detect any great appetite for lessons to be learnt. But I won't let these issues drop. I think a fundamental rethink is needed across a range of government policies in the light of Gloucestershire's experience."