Thoughtless Rumours Fail To Dampen Valuable Floods Meeting (Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrats)

Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrats <info@oxwablibdems.org.uk>

Thoughtless Rumours Fail To Dampen Valuable Floods Meeting

September 13, 2007 4:29 PM

Vale of White Horse District Councillors had a useful debate at their Council meeting yesterday on the recent flooding in the district. Councillors discussed the events which affected communities across the Vale. A large number of residents attended the meeting and several made statements.

Lib Dem Cllr Samantha Bowring, whose own home in Ock Meadow was flooded on July 22nd, recounted her experiences and those of residents in affected households. She has visited over 400 homes in the area and this has provided valuable information to the Council.

Cllr Bowring highlighted some of the suggestions people had made which they believed had made the flooding worse. Some residents had been told that the Vale was responsible for dredging the River Ock and that the Council had stopped this work ten years ago. Cllr Bowring pointed out that responsibility for the river falls to the Environment Agency, which is responsible for all major waterways. The Environment Agency stopped dredging the Ock ten years ago, as part of a national policy because the process did nothing to help the flow of the river, which quickly silted up after it was dredged, and to allow rivers to return to a more natural state.

Some residents also report having been told that gates on the River Ock were opened to allow water to flow more quickly along its course, when in fact there are no gates along the river to allow this to be done.

Cllr Bowring said: "A large number of people in my ward suffered major damage to their properties over the weekend of flooding in July, which will take months to clear up fully. Their attempts sort their homes and lives out will not be helped by the kind of misinformation which has been put out by rumours and misinformation. As the Council meeting confirmed, we need to look very carefully at what happened in July to try to reduce the risk of a repeat and that work will not be helped if residents are given the wrong information. The Vale's response to the flooding was very good and people rightly commended the efforts of Council staff."

Ock Meadow councillors have arranged a public meeting with Evan Harris MP to allow local residents to have a say on their experiences of the flooding. The meeting will be held on November 16th at 7pm in the Guildhall.

Notes:

Some facts and figures about the Vale's response to the recent flooding:

· 126.2mm of rain was recorded at Brize Norton

· The previous record was 79.5mm in 1968

· More than 780 flooded homes have been identified to date. Most of the affected properties were in Ock Meadow.

· The Council issued around 12,000 sandbags.

· The Council received 1500 phone calls on Friday 20th July and nearly 1800 phone calls on Monday 23rd July, compared to a normal daily average of under 900.

· The Vale's website received over 80,000 'hits' on Monday 23rd July, compared to a normal daily average of around 3,000.

· The Council maintained a full residential waste collection service throughout the period of the flooding, with the Council's contractors working extra shifts to keep up. The only problems were on Friday 20th July, when refuse trucks could not get back to their depot.

· The Council funded the collection of flood damaged bulky waste by the Council's contractor, which has now been completed.

· The Council received £250,000 from the government for flood relief

· Between 2002 and 2007, the Vale spent over £500,000 on land drainage and flood prevention in the district. This excludes money levered in from other agencies such as the Environment Agency and Oxfordshire County Council.