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Pitt Report

The floods in the summer of 2007 affected four rivers in Chesterfield: the Rother, the Hipper, the Whitting and the Holmebrook. The Environment Agency moved quickly to draw up plans to prevent the worst two offenders, the Rother and the Hipper, from flooding again by introducing upriver catchment areas, but the Environment Agency has warned my constituents in the affected areas that it will be at least five to 10 years before Government money will be available to enable them to be built. Can the Secretary of State offer any hope of more urgent action, or is the Government's response to residents of areas such as Alma street in my constituency, and many others, that they should simply cross their fingers and hope that it does not rain for another 10 years, because otherwise they will be flooded again?