Article for National Flood Forum newsletter, February 2004
Here is a statement made to the local press (and used by them) recently by a member of Lewes Flood Action in Sussex.
Lewes Flood Action believes that up and down the land there are places in just the same parlous situation as the town of Lewes, in the Ouse Valley. And that the people of these places are just as angry, disillusioned and frustrated as Lewes people are at the lack of action by the Environment Agency and the lack of proper government funding to produce a decent level of fluvial flood defences for vulnerable locations.
If that is so, isn't it high time we all got our act together and started to influence things with the combined weight of our numbers? At least three things need to happen:
- first, every individual needs to write a letter to the Chancellor on the lines suggested in the statement;
- second, the National Flood Forum needs to show some muscle with the Government on everybody's behalf;
- and third, we should organise a powerful demo in London to draw attention to the public danger and the complacency of government.
On this last point, LFA is prepared to take a lead in organising a demo if you are willing to support it. Please contact us and signify your interest in participating. We've had enough; how about you?
The Lewes Statement
LEWES WILL DIE!
...said respected local doctor, Duncan Macpherson, at a Town Hall meeting on 15 January, organized by Lewes Flood Action. Over 200 angry Lewes residents applauded him as he set out their complaints to Environment Agency local manager Peter Midgley and local MP Norman Baker: three years and three months after the disastrous floods of 2000, NO ACTION AT ALL to improve our flood defences - not a foundation dug, not a brick laid. We are all just as vulnerable as we were then.
"Lewes will die" - it's not a scare headline. It's not a joke. Lewes will die, if we have another flood like the last one. Henry Cade, trader in the town for over 50 years, put it best. He said:
"Another flood and 50% of the Cliffe traders will disappear. You won't be able to buy local sausages, cheeses, or flowers. You won't be able to have the Farmers' Market."
He could have added:
"You'll lose your local bookshop, sports shop, fishing tackle shop…"
We've already lost our local photography shop, half of the bookshop and a lot of other small business down Cliffe High Street, not to speak of the two flooded industrial estates.
This isn't something that only affects the "flood victims" (that's what they call us, but right now we feel more like bureaucracy victims). You people on the hill up there - you'll lose your town as well. Remember this when there's only Tesco and County Hall left.
So what happened at the meeting to make us so mad? Plenty of assurances from the Environment Agency that they really care about us and want to do their best for us. Their other representative, Andrew Gillingham, was almost entirely inaudible, but the folks in the front row who could hear him realised it didn't really matter, as whole sentences of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo were being read to us: stake keyholders ... empower the citizens of Lewes ... develop a further strategy ... have the interests of Lewes at heart …
PLE-E-EASE! We've been flooded out, spent months in "alternative accommodation" (some of us in caravans with toddlers throughout the winter), spent a lot of our lives replacing our furniture and crockery and linen (those of us lucky enough to have insurance). Quite a number of us have had breakdowns and seen our marriages suffer, sometimes fatally. Over forty of us have been refused house insurance, and most of us have had our premiums hiked and live under the threat of no-insurance-next-time. And here we are, back in the Town Hall three years on, listening to the same garbage from the same people.
We've studied the "reports" from the Environment Agency and other such bodies. Give us credit for some brains. We know what caused the floods - no need for Midgley to explain in measured tones that the tide came in and met the hill water coming down the river, and whoooooosh... No need for him to tell us over and over again how much he personally cares. We understand that he feels frustrated about not getting the money to do the work - frustration, we could teach him a thing or two.
Of course, when you ploughed through the waffle, including party political witterings from a local councillor, you realised that all they were saying was that they couldn't get the money to build proper flood defences for Lewes. Peter Midgley said gloomily, "There are parts of Lewes that will never get more flood protection, it just isn't worth it" (well, he talked a lot about socio-economic factors and in-depth researches and surveys, but that's what he meant). Bad news for our local free school, with 70 pupils and knowing that another flood will kill their insurance prospects and close them down. Bad news for the folks in Talbot Terrace and Malling who - once the insurance companies wake up to this - will certainly start to lose their house insurance (and their minds). Bad news for EVERYONE. And that's the message we need to get over to our fellow-citizens. This affects you too - help us to save our town.
Lewes Flood Action is planning just that: direct action to try to convince the government to come up with enough money to build flood defences for everyone in the town (and not just a few chosen "cells" like Malling Brooks). Meanwhile, Norman Baker suggests that everyone should write individually - not a "here's-a-letter-sign-and-post-it", or a petition - a real letter to Chancellor Gordon Brown, copying it to Norman. It can be very brief: it's quantity, not quality, that counts here. Write to:
Gordon Brown MP,
Chancellor of the Exchequer,
House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA.
A couple of sentences will do. "Dear Chancellor, I live in Lewes, Sussex. Our town was devastated by the 2000 floods, the worst hit in the UK. Three years on, nothing has been done. We are told there is no money to defend us properly. Please help us."
Go on, write it now. You might live to regret it if you don't.
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