YP Comment: A '˜damp squib' '“ flooding victims snubbed in new betrayal

Far from being a water-tight strategy to protect vulnerable properties in the coming months, and years, this report is another betrayal of all those property owners already let down by a torrent of broken promises.

Yes, £12.5m – a drop in the proverbial ocean – is being spent on new temporary defences which can be deployed in an emergency as river levels rise, and there will be a longer-term review in Sheffield to assess how major cities can be better protected when the next review is conducted at the end of the current six year funding cycle, but there appears to be little else of substance.

There’s no acknowledgement that the Government was slow to respond to the scale of the damage in York, Leeds, the Calder Valley and elsewhere despite David Cameron’s PR visit in pristine boots. Don’t forget, the people of Tadcaster and Elland had to beg for temporary bridges.

There’s little acceptance of the fact that many people can still not obtain affordable insurance – the report’s executive summary talks in bland terms about how the Flood Re scheme “has now been established to ensure that households can continue to obtain flood insurance at affordable cost”. Really? And what about businesses?

There’s also no understanding, amid platitudes like “it is appropriate to reconsider our approaches to assessing flood risk”, that inadequate defences in cities like Leeds will make it harder to attract investors.

And then there’s the politics. Even though the Government has maintained – repeatedly – that there is no North-South divide over funding, residents here have every right to feel snubbed.

For, while coalition Ministers were delaying a scheme in Leeds drawn up after the 2007 floods, they were pressing ahead with a comparable scheme – in terms of cost – for the Thames Valley and Home Counties. And, while Defra officials have spent the past summer trying to source some temporary barriers for storage at unspecified locations, they have been finalising new plans – signed off on Tuesday this week – for the town of Marlow which is just upstream of Maidenhead where the local MP just happens to be one Theresa May.

After eight properties were flooded in 2012, 22 in 2013 and 23 most recently in 2014, this picturesque town on the banks of the Thames is to get a new alleviation scheme. This is not to begrudge residents of Marlow where 245 properties are “at very serious risk”, but it will sit uneasily with thousands of flooding victims here who feel forgotten.

As such, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom should have made a Parliamentary statement in person so that this so-called strategy can be scrutinised in sufficient detail. At the very least, she should be arranging to meet all Yorkshire MPs, council chiefs and the relevant officials from this region as a matter of urgency – The Yorkshire Post will help to facilitate this if necessary. For the plain fact of the matter is that the Government appears to have learned very little from last winter’s floods when this newspaper, and others, had to shake Mr Cameron and others out of their collective lethargy. And we will not hesitate to do so again if necessary. Over to you, Mrs Leadsom.