Flood protection hold up

MORE stormy weather lies ahead for Lewes and Uckfield residents and businesses affected by the floods of 16 months ago.

The Environment Agency has confirmed that, with present levels of spending, it is almost certain that Sussex will fail to qualify for an increase from 65 per cent to 75 per cent in direct Government grant aid, on which it was counting for flood protection work.

The result is bound to be a delay in preparatory work on a vital flood protection scheme for the Ouse.

At a meeting on Friday of the Sussex Flood Defence Committee members reiterated their offer of a nine per cent increase in flood levy in response to the Environment Agency s request for 14 per cent.

The amounts involved are matched by grant aid contributions from the Government.

The committee agreed to reduce the emergency balance by 500,000 and to acknowledge a reduction to the grant-aided programme by 2,562,000.

Anxiety

Said Leslie Goode of Lewes Flood Action: 'The greatest blow will be for Lewes residents who are now awaiting with mounting anxiety the coming of rain and, with it, the expiry in October of the insurance companies gentlemen s agreement to continue to provide cover under existing conditions.

'What faces residents thereafter is still unknown, but the behaviour of insurance companies to date leads them to fear the worst.

'Everything depends on the approval of a comprehensive scheme for the Uck/Ouse basin. So the delay of preliminary site investigations for the scheme until May, 2003, already leaves an uncomfortable hiatus.

'In the meantime, Lewes residents should pray for good weather.

Lewes county councillors are also very concerned to hear that the Environment Agency has had to suspend its exploratory work towards finding a long-term solution to flooding in the area.

They said they were determined to do all they could to remedy this situation.

Cllrs Mike Chartier and Mary McPherson have got the minority LibDem group on the county council to agree in their own budget proposals for 2002/3 that some of the unexpected extra 3 million that the county has been allocated should be put towards funding flood defence work.

Mary McPherson said: 'People in the Lewes area are still very worried about the possibility of further flooding, the mayhem it causes and the very high risk of enormously increased insurance premiums if adequate flood defences are not in place soon.

'The county must do all it possibly can to show that it is doing its part to tackle the problem at source.

Rupert Clubb, Sussex flood defence manager, told the Express that 65 per cent Government funding was still better than many other counties were getting.

However it was true to say that a start on preparatory work for any new defence scheme would be put back at least until April next year.

A start on building the new flood defence might start in the summer of that year.

It is thought that a preferred scheme, involving at least two options, will be announced at the beginning of March.