Brooks seeks reassurance over local flood protection

Today, Brooks Newmark has contacted the Environment Agency seeking urgent reassurance about local flood protection. Today, Brooks Newmark has contacted the Environment Agency seeking urgent reassurance about local flood protection.

Brooks says, "The unpredictable weather we are currently experiencing only highlights the urgent need for local flood protection. We are a low-lying area with a number of rivers that are put under substantial pressure during periods of high rainfall, which has been exacerbated over the previous week by meltwater from recent large snowfalls.

While it can be easy to blame flooding on freak events which are rarely replicated, the flooding we are seeing today in many village in our local area only highlights the urgent need for investment in local flood protection.

In 2007 I wrote to the Minister for Climate Change and to the Environment Agency to express my concern about the risks of flooding in our area. However, I was told that potential schemes to guard Witham and Coggeshall from flood damage would not be carried out as they did not register high enough on the list of national priorities.

Yet, I think that protecting our land and homes from flooding is a priority, especially to the many people who woke up this morning with water seeping into their houses. The Government has been far too complacent about the risks of flooding for far too long.

The weather events over the last week which brought parts of the country grinding to a standstill should be a wake-up call to the Government to begin prioritising the needs of villages in our local area who are continually being hard hit by these adverse weather conditions.

I am a great believer that prevention is always better than cure, and so I have again contacted both the Environment Agency and the Minister for Farming and the Environment to seek reassurance over our local flood protection and to request that any necessary investment will be rapidly forthcoming.