“The pressure is on” say local flood campaigners

In the wake of November’s floods affecting approximately 90 homes and local businesses, Flood Action 4 Buckingham have ramped up their campaign.

And on Monday 20th January the action group met with Callum Anderson MP for Buckingham and Bletchley to share their concerns about what they say is a “dire lack of funding and lack of support” for Buckingham. They argue that the county town has been overlooked in Buckinghamshire flood planning. Callum Anderson (Member of Parliament, Buckingham and Bletchley) has previously committed to working with Buckingham Town Council, Buckinghamshire Council, and the Environment Agency to ensure that Buckingham is more resilient in the future.

The members of Flood Action 4 Buckingham believe that the Environment Agency – the national agency which manages flood risks - has focussed on maintenance of rivers and flood concerns in the south of the county, at the expense of towns and villages in the north. They pointed to evidence that local flooding is occurring more regularly and not just 'once every hundred years'.

Flood Action 4 Buckingham are asking for local councils to have an agenda item on flooding at every meeting to show they are taking the issue seriously. They referred to Cllr Martin Tett’s (Leader, Buckinghamshire Council) recent comment: “Frankly with climate change and all this rainfall we're seeing, quite often there's nowhere else for this water to go” as “rather insensitive and definitely uncalled for”.

Flood Action 4 Buckingham created a slideshow of pictures and videos showing the impact of flooding on residents and businesses in this, what feels like, neglected market town in North Bucks. This was shown to Callum in the meeting.