Deluge of praise for emergency services in response to crisis

26 July 2007

Emergency planning teams across the latest flood-hit regions ‘responded well’ to the deluge and local authorities have won praise from flood recovery minister, John Healey.

Healey, who attended another top-level emergency COBRA meeting in Downing Street on Tuesday morning, said he had seen ‘local authorities at their best’.

In an interview with Surveyor he said: ‘They provided the kind of response communities needed as well as public assurance and leadership. It has been an outstanding example of local government leading the recovery effort.’

A spokesperson for Buckinghamshire County Council said the authority had ‘essentially coped so far’ on the back of its multi-agency approach with the district councils, Thames Water and the Environment Agency. West Berkshire was well prepared because of the 2003 flooding, which showed which homes were likely to be hit, a spokesman said. However, roadside drainage was overwhelmed in places, and culverts at Pangbourne were unable to cope.

Birmingham coped well because it had perfected its emergency response over the years, Neil Dancer, the city council’s chief highways engineer, told Surveyor. Contractors worked efficiently, Severn Trent Water responded well, and the team was ‘slick’ with putting in traffic diversions – which was often under-estimated in softening the blow.

The impact of vehicles coming down a flooded road could cause water to enter properties which otherwise wouldn’t be flooded, he said. However, he said one body was needed to manage the mop up, because the Environment Agency and utility companies were stretched geographically, and not focused enough on one particular area. ‘An in-house organisation has total local knowledge,’ he said.

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Deluge of praise for emergency services in response to crisis

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