Commenting one year on from Storm Christoph, Andy gives his thoughts in the Warrington Guardian:
In January of last year I saw for myself some of the most devasting impacts caused by flooding. Sankey Bridges, Dallam & Bewsey really took the brunt of Storm Christoph, and I have no doubt that some families and businesses will still be feeling that impact one year on, such was the immense levels of water which hit the area.
Such events highlight the need for serious consideration of issues relating to water management so that we can be prepared and mitigate future impacts. I’m pleased that over the past year we have made good progress, I invited the flooding minister to visit, she came along with Senior planners from the Environment Agency to look at show we can protect homes locally. Since then, we have had indications of £15million through the Governments Flood Defence Scheme which will be used on the Sankey Brook to protect in Dallam and Bewsey, Warrington Borough Council will also need to contribute to the scheme along with a number of other organisations.
I’ve spoken to many local people who tell me about their fears when we have prolonged heavy rainfall that the type of flooding we saw 12 months ago might happen again, it’s vital that drains and gullys are cleared, that the streams are well maintained and that we look at all the learning from what happened 12 months ago and fully implement the lessons to minimise the risk of this happening again.
