Flood defence funding needed

PRESSURE groups are to quiz East Sussex County Council members about future funding for flood defences at the council s meeting on Tuesday.

David White, chairman of the Cuckmere Flood Forum, has written to every councillor pressing for 'full and proper funding to agencies responsible for flood protection.

And he adds: 'In our discussions with the agencies, we were repeatedly referred to under-funding in previous years. In any budgetary choices, cutting back on essentials is a false economy.

'The inevitable conclusion, as was apparent last year, is that the consequences, both in human misery and financial loss, are much greater a small budgetary saving on preventative work becomes a much larger sum to be met out of contingencies and reserves.

'It is our belief that in reaching its funding decisions, your authority should have regard to the recommendations and proposals from the various agencies, and that your constituents will not thank you for preventing those with the knowledge from carrying out the essential works that they believe necessary to protect those properties at risk by depriving them of adequate resources.

'We urge you therefore to ensure that full and proper funding is made available and that we do not, once again, suffer the embarrassment of being informed that essential work has been restricted through lack of adequate funding.

And David Winbush of the Lewes Flood Group has asked the following question:

'In view of the fact that, following the worst flooding in the UK for 50 years, East Sussex has been identified by the chairman of the Environment Agency as one of the UK s worst flood affected areas and, as having a county council with one of the worst records of securing funding for the Flood Defence Levy, how much Flood Defence Levy was requested by the Environment Agency and how much did East Sussex County Council actually pay in each of the last four years?

'How much does the county council plan to pay in response to the present request for Flood Defence Levy for the coming year, and how much would the council tax have to be increased to pay the full Flood Defence Levy for East Sussex?