Council leader urges action over 'North-South floods divide'

Judith Blake has been assessing the damage caused in the city centre and other areas by the River Aire after what she called a preventable disaster'' for Leeds.

Ms Blake said a flood prevention scheme for the city was ditched by the Government in 2011.

And the Labour councillor contrasted the response to floods in the North of England with what happened following the inundation of parts of Somerset last year.

Asked if she saw the situation in terms of a north-south divide, she said: I think we're beginning to feel that very strongly. At that time there were other flooding events in the North that didn't get anywhere near the support that we saw going into Somerset.''

200 homes had been flooded in Leeds over the last few days and more than 400 businesses were affected.

She said that, in response to very high river levels during the 2007 floods, a scheme was drawn up to protect the whole of the city from the River Aire.

But, she said, the Government pulled the funding in 2011, leaving the council to fund just the first phase of the project, in the city centre.

She said: I think there's a real anger growing across the North about the fact that the cuts have been made to the flood defences and we'll be having those conversations as soon as we are sure that people are safe and that we start the clean-up process and really begin the assess the scale of the damage.''

She said: So there are some very serious questions for Government to answer on this and we'll be putting as much pressure on as possible to redress the balance and get the funding situation equalised so the North get its fair share.''

Clear-up operations are continuing in the city centre and along Kirstall Road.

But the dramatic scenes which saw the major artery turned into a fast-flowing river are now gone and roads are being reopened after cleaning lorries removed sludge from the carriageways.

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