Flooding Debate "Not Urgent Enough"

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 11th Sep 2007

Liberal Democrats were concerned that their urgent motion about flooding was deferred because the Council meeting "ran out of time" yesterday when the discussion on the draft Sustainable Communities Strategy went an hour over its scheduled time. Liberal Democrats had hoped to discuss at least one of their three urgent motions, and they had ordered them in order of priority. Action on flooding was their top priority.

Cllr Bob Johnston, whose motion it was, said, "We were calling for specific actions to be taken, such as undertaking a survey of those ditches and culverts for which the County Council is responsible, and calling on the Environment Agency and Thames Water to meet their obligations. Also, experience from villages such as Kennington has shown that having groups of volunteers who are willing to help fill and distribute sandbags can greatly reduce the misery caused by flooding. I was trying to share some good practice. This motion was urgent because councils and other authorities are reviewing their actions during the recent flooding and we wanted to ensure we are in a better position before winter draws in".

Cllr Zoé Patrick, whose division of Grove and Wantage was amongst many suffering from flooding, said, "Victims of flooding in Oxfordshire want to see that their concerns are being listened to, so we thought it was important to act now."