Environment Agency Face Questions Over Response To Floods
Senior figures from the Environment Agency are being questioned today about their response to the devastating floods that hit the country on Boxing Day.
Senior figures from the Environment Agency are being questioned today about their response to the devastating floods that hit the country on Boxing Day.
The agency’s Chair, Sir Philip Dilley, and Chief Executive, Sir James Bevan, will hear suggestions from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on how flood defences can be improved to avoid incidents in the future, which saw Kirkstall Road become completely submerged in water following Storm Eva.
There’s fresh warnings from experts in Leeds, though, that we could see a repeat of some of the floods that tore through Yorkshire if the agency don’t put a long-term plan in place.
Jim McQuaid is an Atmospheric Scientist at the University of Leeds told Radio Aire they’re becoming more common:
“We used to have a one in a thousand chance of a storm, now it’s one in one hundred, now we’re thinking about one in twenty year storms. That’s three or four events in people’s lifetimes, whereas it used to be you’d have to speak to your grandparents about the last time floods like this happened.
“I think a lot of people were amazed by those pictures along Kirkstall Road- people were talking about them for days, but I think it will happen again. How long it is it until it’s to that extent is difficult to say, but I think it will happen again”.
Viki Hirst is a Knowledge Exchange Fellow working in Water at Leeds. She says that the government need to listen to the people living in flood hit communities:
- “In these steep sided, deep valleys we’ve got in Yorkshire it’s very important for policy makers to work with those managing the land and agree what’s best for both the economy and the environment.*
“It also needs money immediately for where those defences and walls have fallen down and need to be replaced, but if you think longer term about forecasting, raising awareness of where the issues are and then building more resilient communities- that’s so important”.
Earlier this week, the government announced a £40 million package to improve Yorkshire’s flood defences.