Government cuts mean some planned flood and coastal defences will not go ahead. But no-one wants to tell me which ones. Can you help plug the information gap?
? See the flood defences Guardian readers have submitted
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, that is the government's cuts to flood and coastal defence spending. I need your help to reveal the impact the cuts will have on new defences because, as it stands, just weeks from the new financial year, no-one knows.
Below, I'll relate the farcical example of the funding for the proposed coastal defences in Felixstowe town and how the Prime Minister, David Cameron, appears to be more worried by flooding abroad than at home. But first let's consider the byzantine and opaque way in which defence projects get the go-ahead.
Life is too short to go into the details here, but in brief the Environment Agency sends a list of "indicative allocations" to the relevant regional committees, suggesting the possible funding outcomes for proposed projects. Many of these projects have had years of preparatory work done and boast cost-benefit ratios of 5-to-1 or better. What follows the sending of the lists is lots of back and forth before the EA board decides which projects get funded.
The EA says it will complete all defences under construction but that fewer new projects will start because of the government cuts. (The government says the cuts are 8%, everyone else says 27%).
So I want to see the lists of the projects being considered and then see which ones fail to get funded in March. The EA indicative allocation lists are not secret, but neither can the EA give them to me. I have asked again and will make a request under the Freedom of Information Act if needed. Watch this space.
In the meantime, if you live in an area at risk of flooding or of coastal erosion and there is a proposal for new defences that has yet to be funded, I need your help. Please add a mention of it in the comments below and put a few extra details into the form at the end of this post. I'll then be able to highlight projects that go unfunded following the cuts.
And so to Felixstowe. The town section of the sea defences has in places a "zero-year" lifespan, according to analysis by engineers Mott MacDonald. As seafront resident, Paul Marsh, told me: "You can see it crumbling before your eyes. If we got the wrong weather something very bad could happen very quickly."
After 10 years of investigations, the planned �10m scheme to rebuild the defense was dropped from the EA's indicative list on the 23 December. Now, after a huge local outcry, it is back on the list. "It's like a yo-yo," said Marsh, adding that the stress caused by the uncertainty and the unfathomable process is huge.
The EA told me: "Prior to publication of the draft allocations, we reviewed all schemes nationally. Felixstowe was removed, however following further discussions with Defra on funding guidance, we were able to reinstate it."
Like Marsh, Labour's shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh is unhappy about the uncertainty:
"The government is being shockingly complacent about the impact of a 27% cut to flood defence spending. Homeowners and businesses want certainty about flood defence schemes not more delays about which projects will get funding or not.
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"Labour increased flood defence funding each year by more than inflation following the 2007 floods. It is imperative for the Government to reassure the public that they are taking the necessary steps to provide flood protection for everyone, especially in vulnerable areas."
There have been recent terrible floods in Australia, Brazil and Sri Lanka, and the prime minister rightly sent his condolences to prime minister Julia Gillard and president Dilma Roussef.
Both the prime minister and his enviroment secretary Caroline Spelman agree that the risk of flooding is rising due to global warming, in the UK and elsewhere. Yet, while claiming to protect flood defence spending, they have driven through cuts and then tried to spin the result as "broadly the same".
In my opinion, that is not acceptable and I hope you will help me document the impact of those actions.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jan/19/flooding
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