I was involved in a recent exchange with the sitting Conservative MP for Calder Valley on his claim of securing flood prevention funds. The statement in a form of a video message didn’t go down well. My response was extremely critical with the critical considering the claims made where the MP voted against a bill that would have provided the funding necessary.
The response is in line with the comment made that the EU didn’t provide much support in funding these project.
EU contribution to DEFRA is vast across the country, to claim the majority of capital investment funding solely came from the treasury is disingenuous as the funds are always taken from the local pot and receipt claims from the funding streams of which EU funding is one, more specifically the EUSF (EU Solidarity Fund) – you know the one set up by the EU that we pay into for natural disasters, call it an insurance policy. The £1.6m you allude to is most likely from the ERDF/ESIF which is channelled through the CA, LEP, LA and again that pot is for flood defences as well as economic growth. It’s down to the local authorities and agencies to decide the high priority impact areas of which Calder Valley seems to be somewhere down the list. Why wasn’t that fought to bring it up the list? Let’s leave that to one side.
Those that work for the CA, LEP, Local Councils, Gov Agencies and more were involved in making the applications of securing the funding and delivering it, you can’t take credit for all their hard work – I know because I’ve been in this space. There is a raft of funding programmes for capital projects including flood prevention and erosion that have been in the pipeline for a while – and guess what, waiting for the funding to be released from the treasury. I know the EU funding that has been provided to these areas. I have seen what was being done and what games were being played. Surprise surprise an election is closeby and the Magic Money Tree has suddenly dropped some coin.
DEFRA receive(s/d) a large chunk of its budget from the EU, Conservative Government decided not to take it and has diminished over time because the Tory party specifically the Europhiles didn’t apply for the funding. There may be some other factors at play as there always are, but, this is either incompetence or arrogance, the people will decide.
Over which period has the £110 million been allocated? It’s quite cynical to claims that the UK government paid for this funding when a lot of the supporting activities around these activities has funding from other sources.
Whilst we’re here, I just want to flag up something more pertinent. There have been at least eight river flooding events in the last 35 years.
In 2012 around 1,200 flooding events were recorded. The correlation between these and climate change is becoming indisputable.
“However, it is widely accepted that this standard of protection will reduce over time due to increases in flood risk from climate change and continued investment is required to safeguard other areas and communities further along the valley, from flooding in future generations.”
Your voting record in your time as an MP is a mixed bag of tricks, you almost consistently and exclusively voted against bills proposed that would address the impact of climate change. In my eyes that is a record for a climate denier. You may not be, but your voting record indicates otherwise.