Lincolnshire County Council urge Government to protect communities from flooding
It follows an independent review of an investigation exploring the impact of one of Horncastle's flood defences
The Government is being called upon to prioritise protecting communities in Lincolnshire from flooding.
A report by Lincolnshire County Council has found the devastation in Horncastle last October was the result of heavy rainfall, which the Environment Agency previously stated after an investigation.
Flooding was an issue that affected around 1000 homes in the county over the course of that winter.
Councillor Colin Davie is the Executive member for Environment, Economy and Strategic Planning at the County Council:
"Firstly, as we know, we had these massive storm events, storm Babet, and Henk, and we had a very major flooding incident in Horncastle and about 200 properties were impacted by this torrential rainfall.
"We took a decision to Commission an independent review of the Environment Agency's (EA) work and what happened there, and our report concludes that there is no smoking gun in the sense that the EA failed significantly in their responsibilities, and it is very likely that the flooding that took place could not have been avoided.
"At the end of the day, my responsibilities are to the people of Lincolnshire, and particularly to the people of Horncastle... to have your your home flooded, it's a very stressful event, for any resident. It causes mental anguish that you don't just get over. It goes on for a long time and people are fearful about the future, and about future potential flooding in the county."
He added that the Government need to "step up" and dedicate more funding towards protecting communities from flooding:
"We need to ensure that the EA gets the funding from central government that it needs, to properly and adequately protect the residents, not just of Horncastle, but of Lincolnshire generally.
"I will continue to lobby government to make sure that they, and all the other agencies involved, keep us dry, keep our people safe, get the funding they need, and get the support they need. We've invested as a County Council, considerably in the last couple of years into further works on flood defences, and flood defence funding, and I want to continue to do that as much as we're financially able to.
"But I also want the Government to step up to the plate, you can't in one breath, talk about climate change being this huge problem, and then not put any money into looking after people in their homes, keeping them dry, keeping them warm. They've got to be the first priority of government and they need to start responding in the right way to that."