We've got to learn from scenes like these

We've got to learn lessons from the floods

 We have got to learn the lessons of the recent flooding.

That's why I'm calling on all the borough councils, emergency services and the Environment Agency to pull together to carry out a thorough review of the flooding and to decide what can be done to help protect homes and businesses in the future.

Parts of the county were badly hit by the heavy rain and Staffordshire's highways officers worked round the clock to clear the deluge caused by the flooding, including clearing fallen branches and unblocking drains. Kinver was one of the areas most badly affected. Highways officers remained in the area to help combat flooding and hand out over 350 sandbags to protect homes and businesses. Kidsgrove up in the north of the county was also affected.

Teams also help emergency services rescue stranded cattle from Stafford and Lichfield.

I would like to express my sympathy on behalf of the county council to all those who have been affected, and to say thank you for the way in which the public services, including our own county council staff responded to these incidents.

We are led to believe that as global warming continues that flooding is likely to become a more frequent occurrence.  We also know that there is a lot of water in the system now, and even if we get through the summer without further flooding we may face further flood threats later in the year.  We need to make sure the county, are ready and able to respond effectively to this potential threat.  We also need to look to the longer term, beyond just providing an effective emergency response, to start thinking about what we need to do in Staffordshire to better protect our towns, villages and homes from the risk of flooding.

This isn't something that we as the county council can do on our own.  It needs to involve the districts, the emergency services, the Environment Agency and others to carry out a thorough review of how the flooding has been dealt with and what lessons we can learn both in terms of managing the emergency response and recovery to flooding. We also need to look at what steps can be taken to reduce the risk of flooding and better protect peoples' homes and businesses.  I will therefore be asking the Staffordshire Resilience Forum to carry out a review with a view to reporting back to us and the other agencies involved with their findings.

 

Page Last Modified: 01/08/2007 10:18:14

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