Star date: 19th August 2017 

LOCAL COMMUNITIES MUST BE HEARD ON FLOOD ISSUES

Today, a packed community-led conference attended by flood actions groups from across the River Irwell catchment area heard Lower Broughton resident Keri Muldoon call for councils further upstream from Salford to act on flooding.

While Salford Deputy Mayor, John Merry, addressed the meeting, no councillors from Bury attended, much to the fury of flood victims from that town. The main message was that communities with local knowledge of rivers must be heard.

Full details here...

Local councils upstream from Salford and on the River Irwell must act or, no matter what defences are in place, the flooding that devastated Lower Broughton on Boxing Day 2015, will happen again.

That was the message from Lower Broughton resident and flood victim, Keri Muldoon, to a jam packed conference held at the Business School of Manchester Metropolitan University today.

The conference, titled From The Flood To The Future and hosted by the Radcliffe and Redvales Flood Action Group with Dr Paul O'Hare, brought together flood action groups from across the Irwell catchment and beyond, as community organisations from as far away as Carlisle attended to share their knowledge.

Indeed, John Kelsall, from the Carlisle Flood Action Group, told people 'not to trust the system'. Carlisle had £38million spent on flood defences - which didn't work when Storm Desmond hit..."It made it worse" he said, adding that agency and government statements saying floods were caused by 'unprecedented weather' and 'extreme events' merely acted to deflect responsibility away from themselves.

He explained that flooding problems cannot be solved by one flood action group in isolation, and that the whole of a river catchment area needs to be looked at.

It was a theme taken up by Keri, who argued that, while Salford Council had helped, it would be pointless unless councils like Bury, Bolton and those throughout Lancashire were pushed into action.

She told the conference that, before the flood, she and many others didn't even know they were living in a flood zone, never mind the highest Flood Zone 3...

"Everyone lost everything and we were lucky if we got £2,000 back" she said "And I can't see anything being done. We've now got two flood fields but the only way we'll know if they work is if it happens again...We need the boroughs from upstream to step in...and they're not even here today..."

Indeed, Radcliffe residents caught in the 2015 flood were furious that there was no official representation from Bury...

"This conference has been spearheaded by Radcliffe and Redvales Flood Forum in Bury and despite issuing invites to all our MPs and councillors not one has attended" Joyce Walkden of the Parkside Estate in Radcliffe told the Salford Star.

"As a resident, I find it very upsetting; not only are they not showing support but there is a lot of very useful information being disseminated at this conference" she added "The Environment Agency are here in force, and I feel so impoverished, especially as we have had a speech from Deputy Mayor of Salford. We are an authority on the Irwell that flooded, with no representation from our MPs or councillors."

Salford, meanwhile, was represented, with the Broughton Trust and residents, as well as Broughton councillor and Deputy Mayor, John Merry, who told the Conference that the new flood basin in Lower Kersal (formally to be opened in October) should make a "positive contribution".

He admitted that "we've not been warning people adequately...In Hebden Bridge there was a siren, but in Salford there was nothing and the Environment Agency warnings didn't work properly..."

Merry explained that Salford did now have 'dedicated cars' that would go around an area giving warnings, plus a new LED community flood warning display board that is soon to be installed.*

"We've got to find a way of protecting residents and speaking on behalf of them" he concluded, before adding that central Government holds the purse strings for flood defences and expects a business case study before it loosens them. As other contributors pointed out, making a 'business case' for flood defences is almost impossible.

Meanwhile, Phiala Mehring, from the Loddon Valley Residents Association, told how potential flooding issues were fobbed off within the planning process to 'reserved matters' to be dealt with at officer level rather than with community consultation.

She also emphasised the importance of local knowledge of rivers... "Communities want to be heard, it's our lives" she insisted.

Today, local communities were heard, with local authorities and the Environment Agency getting a good earful of issues. A Salford resident with knowledge of the Irwell complained about invasive species of plants like Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed eroding the river bank.

The Environment Agency responded that it had no legal duty, apart from land it owns, to get rid of the plants, and that it depended on capacity to spray other areas. The duty fell on landowners and the local authority but there was an 'enforcement gap'.

Other residents spoke of how climate change was going to make flooding worse, and that the rapid development of housing on flood plains meant more stringent planning rules are needed.

This latter contributor added that "Most of the problems are man-made"...and the message from the conference was that the solutions will also be man-made – but that communities themselves must be part of that process... "It's our lives..."

* Salford To Get LED Flood Warning Notice Board and the Future of Mocha Parade - click here

Main photo shows Keri Muldoon addressing the conference