We still await No 10's reply to floods call after 51 days

This newspaper wrote to David Cameron in January with an open letter that included five requests on how the Government could assist the region’s post-flood recovery.

Yet seven weeks on and the newspaper is still to get a personal response, despite yesterday’s front-page comment piece explaining that such an important issue demands the Prime Minister’s attention.

A Downing Street spokesman said a letter would arrive in due course.

He said: “Everybody who writes to the Prime Minister gets a response so there will be a response, but I can’t tell you at this stage when the response will be in your hands.”

A typical ministerial response time to a letter is 20 days, MPs endeavour to reply to their constituents within a month and even Freedom of Information requests are due within 20 working days.

While the scale of the Prime Minister’s post-bag is significant, waiting 51 days for answers to families concerns on flooding has been branded unacceptable by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Holly Lynch, Labour MP for Calder Valley, said: “The flooding was the worst in living memory and the Government has been sympathetic and said the right things so it’s disappointing they have not responded to this letter.

“We know the Prime Minister is busy but we would expect a response a lot sooner than 50 days.”

She is now rallying Labour MPs whose communities were hit to send a joint letter to Prime Minister demanding he replies to The Yorkshire Post soon.

Leader of the Lib Dems Tim Farron is demanding a response within four days. The MP said: “It’s time for the Government to step up to the plate, answer The Yorkshire Post’s questions and provide the funds to make sure the flood defences are built.”

On Friday The Yorkshire Post decided to spike a Press release offered by the Prime Minister’s communications team on English Tourism Week, as it is still awaiting a response to a letter it sent on flooding in January.

Among the letter’s five key points were calls for a fully independent audit of all spending on flood defences, a specific inquiry into the Yorkshire floods and urgent talks with the insurance industry to help those who can no longer afford insurance premiums.

Our request for a feasibility study into a larger flood defence scheme in Leeds has already been met.

Comment Editor Tom Richmond wrote that printing the tourism statement ‘would have been a disservice to readers’ by giving the Prime Minister a platform when ‘so many homes, businesses and tourist destinations are paying such a high price for the floods’.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, said: “The floods that hit The North was a natural disaster and out of anyone’s control but the government’s woeful reaction is firmly down to No 10. The Prime Minister should hang his head in shame. He has let down The North and let down thousands of people who were looking to him for leadership.

“The real powerhouse is the spirit of communities throughout Yorkshire who worked together and pulled their communities back together while the government sat idly by. It makes me incredibly angry to see ministers in high vis jackets walking round and surveying the scene.

“We don’t need more empty words, we need action.”