Star date: 21st January 2016

LOWER BROUGHTON COMMUNITY FURY AT FLOOD MEETING

Last night, a jam packed meeting about the Lower Broughton floods saw the community vent their anger at Salford Mayor Ian Stewart, and representatives of the Environment Agency, Salix Homes, Greater Manchester Police – and local MP Graham Stringer who didn't show up.

As people told their stories of `chaos' on Boxing Day and being `left in the lurch' afterwards, the authorities apologised and admitted numerous failures... "After four weeks we're still being fobbed off..." said one disgusted resident after the meeting.

Full details here...

Last night, at River View Primary School in Lower Broughton, over 160 people packed into a hall to vent frustrations and demand answers regarding the handling of the Boxing Day flood which left many lives devastated.

After residents told personal horror stories of their experience during the flood and since, Superintendent Mark Kenny of Greater Manchester Police, Salford Mayor Ian Stewart and Salix Homes Chief Executive, Lee Sugden, left their seats on the top table and went to personally apologise to those concerned, noting down addresses and details.

It was a meeting fraught with acrimony, during which agency representatives speaking were subject to constant cat calls, none more so than the Salford Mayor who, at one point, asked for a vote as to whether he should carry on talking...

"You left us in the lurch" shouted one person... "The residents dealt with it themselves, not you..." shouted another, as Stewart struggled to make himself heard...

"I'd be sick as a pig if I was you" the Mayor began "...The best laid plans didn't go right" he added, before promising a full report into the disaster.

Graham Cooper, from the Broughton Trust, directly challenged the Environment Agency on the lack of warnings... "We were told there was no flood problem...Why, when I phoned you at 1pm did you ignore me...why did you ignore what local people were saying?"

The Environment Agency rep admitted that "our flood warning struggled to cope" and promised drop-in sessions for residents to "find out exactly what happened on the day"... Stewart promised to review "all the failures" to "learn from mistakes" - one of which was the plan to use River View Primary School as the main evacuation centre, even though it was right in the middle of the flood plain.

... "It was chaos" said one resident, while Irwell Riverside Councillor, Jane Hamilton, said her experience of the night was trying to get residents to go to the Beacon Centre, while Fire and Rescue staff were being told, wrongly, that it was full...

But it was the experiences of residents themselves that shocked the authorities, forced to face the community for the first time en mass. Stories ranged from a 75 year old lady being left by the police on a step, waist high in water...to a mother struggling to get her disabled son to safety...to an 85 year old lady's plight being ignored despite appeals and radio pleas from her family...

"On the night of the flood no-one came near Flora Drive and we got it worst" said a resident "There were old aged pensioners, disabled people...nobody was there for us..."

Residents were also scathing of their treatment since the flood, with elderly people still left with no hot meals, families still living surrounded by the remnants of sewage water and streets remaining covered in sludge...

"Salix left me to struggle for three days" said one elderly lady... "There are people still struggling" added another resident "No-one is going out to people, you are doing too little and we are fed up of being let down..."

A disabled mother explained that she was still living in a freezing house with her daughter, with four big holes in her kitchen after the flood came in through her sink... "There was poo floating...yet we're told it's not contaminated...No-one has come to clean it up...I can't live with it any more...". Another mother added that she has two kids, two jobs and "I've got to pay rent for a house I can't live in..."... "We can't afford to move", said another, poignantly.

Graham Cooper summed up the mood of the meeting when he said "You feel that questions aren't being answered here...We've listened for two hours of what people have been living with for weeks and there's a lot more questions that need answering; these people need reassurances about what you are going to do next. I've not heard anyone say `We're trying to make sure it won't flood again'..."

He criticised Salford Council for allowing new buildings on land that should soak the rain... "Life should come before anything else" he said to massive applause.

Others slated United Utilities for the state of the drains which caused the first floods on Heath Avenue, the Council for making people go to Swinton to get sandbags – "stupid" agreed the Mayor – and the role of Peel Holdings which controlled its own Ship Canal flood gates, with many suspecting the company saved its Media City property at the expense of Lower Broughton.

Meanwhile, Broughton and Blackley MP, Graham Stringer, was lambasted for his non-attendance... with residents insistent that their `disappointment with him not turning up' was formally minuted... "He's a waste of space" said one resident "What can be more important than turning up tonight? He should have had the balls to be here..."

Apart from the politicians and agency representatives getting a proper Salford ear bashing, all that came out of the meeting really was the promise of Environment Agency drop-in sessions to find out what went wrong in Lower Broughton on Boxing Day. Even the £1million fund announced by Salford City Council this week (see here), failed to placate people... "It's not about the money" said one resident "This is about our lives..."

After the meeting, residents were still furious... "It was rubbish, a load of bollocks really"... "No-one has actually explained anything to us"... "We've just been fobbed off, again"... "Four weeks on and they only came to spray my house yesterday...a bit late I've been living in it for four weeks...I've had nothing yet, no dehumidifier, nothing"... "I've lost everything and I've lost heart in it all..."

Photos by Steven Speed