Leader of Hull City Council, Cllr Carl Minns, informed BBC 1 Look North News that it was estimated that it would cost £300M to repair the damage caused by the recent floods, with £100M alone needed just for the damage to schools. He is seeking funding from central government to cover the cost. The Environment Minister, Hilary Benn, talked and talked but refused to walk the walk and answer a straight question with a straight answer. He refused to bail the council out and stated that it was the council's responsibility to be insured.
I suspect that the council is insured. Whilst I blame the council for not maintaining the drains properly which would have mitigated the damage considerably, nevertheless, if the government had not wasted £Billions in Iraq, perhaps there would be money for state aid where it is needed.
UPDATE: Guido states that Cameron blames Brown's 7 day reign for the floods.
1 comment:
Well Done Hillary.
I don't see why the Tax Payer should Bail out Hull's bad housekeeping.
It's not just Hull though is it? The Fire Brigade is still pumping water from a few villages, long after the rain has stopped and the river levels dropped becuase poorly maintained drains are holding the water back.
A lot has to do with Agriculture too. The road up to our place used to run like a brown river in heavy rain until someone had a word with a local farmer and had him plough across the hill rather than up/down. In an instant the road flooding problem stopped.
I once saw a flash flood break through a stone wall and it was purely because the fields above had been covered with membrane to bring on an early crop thus removing all natural drainage for the Heavy rainwater..
Needless to say, tarmacing, concreting and paving over every last inch of urban ground is just plain crazy.
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