MP Matt Warman hosted a flood resilience forum at Batemans Visitor Centre in Wainfleet, along with local councillor, Wendy Bowkett. Howver, members of the public were still more interested in what is being done to prevent flooding rather than measures available to keep the water out.
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00:00 The river steeping at Wainfleet was high after just a few hours of rain when Flood Mary and
00:07 her floodmobile rolled into town for a resilience forum. The event at Baton's Visitor Centre
00:14 was organised by MP Matt Warman and Councillor Wendy Bowcott. However, residents seemed more
00:22 interested in what is being done to prevent flooding than what can be done to keep water
00:27 out of their homes. Can you explain what today is all about? So obviously Wainfleet is an
00:34 area that is at significant risk of flooding and we've spent a significant amount of money
00:40 upgrading Wainfleet's flood defences and that's why during Storm the Bett recently we saw
00:45 a very tiny number of houses that had any kind of flooding compared to previous events.
00:51 But it's absolutely right that we give people the chance to ask the Environment Agency,
00:56 the IDBs, all of the different people who are involved questions about why they take
01:00 the approach that they do and we show people what building and upgrading properties looks
01:06 like so that they're as resilient to flooding as possible. What is the government doing
01:12 to help people in this area? Well the government in the wake of various different flood events
01:17 has offered grants to people to put things back as they were or even to build back better
01:23 and also there is of course that much longer term programme upgrading flood defences around
01:29 the country. Now some of that for instance as I just said has benefited Wainfleet previously,
01:33 we've spent hundreds of millions of pounds on the flood barrier in Boston and there's
01:37 of course the continuing programmes around the Skate Ness and the coast. But in the longer
01:42 term we do also need to think about what does spending even greater money in the face of
01:49 climate change need to look like and that will be a conversation for the next few years
01:54 but we see the interest in an event like this today just how much people care about that
01:58 stuff and quite a lot too. Now you've been flooded twice, do you think events like this
02:05 are useful? Oh yeah definitely, yes. Are you worried that flooding might happen again?
02:13 Oh yeah we had a flood alert last night and we went round this morning to have a look
02:20 and the river is so high again at the moment. Yesterday it was the lowest it's been in a
02:25 long time and within what five, six hours it's really high again. Do you think enough
02:32 is being done to stop the flooding? No, no there's a lot more that can be done. And
02:38 what would you say that would be? Clean the rivers out like they used to do. We're fed
02:43 up with saying the same things Chrissie, they need to clean the rivers out like they
02:47 used to do many, many years ago. There's so much rubbish that's floating down the river
02:52 today. We've had a near miss last year with Storm Bebec which was very close to another
03:01 flood and really this meeting here today at the Baton Visitor Centre is to do with that
03:09 as well. Now even today after a day of rain the dikes are looking pretty full. Is Wainfleet
03:17 still worried that they could flood? Yeah Wainfleet, the residents are always worried
03:23 and this is the issue. It's the stress and the mental strain on the community that really
03:32 worries me about it more than actually the damage it causes. Now I've been told that
03:39 after Storm Bebec there wasn't much flooding and so the work that had been done, it had
03:48 shown that it was being effective. Do you think that enough is being done? No, there's
03:55 not enough being done. 2018 was a breach in the bank. The water never got as high as what
04:02 it did in Storm Bebec because the banks failed before it got there. But that was an issue
04:07 with the bank structure itself. That has been dealt with by the Environment Agency. But
04:15 the actual flow of the river, the water's coming in faster than it can get out basically
04:23 and that's really to do with things like building up in the Spillsbury area and locally
04:32 where the water's going to run off faster and probably to do with minimum tillage where
04:38 the water can't soak through to the substrate quick enough. But one of them's got to be
04:47 dealt with. Either they've got to stop it getting in or they've got to get another outlet
04:51 out to sea. And more dredging? Dredging will help and I believe that if the river was maintained
04:59 properly back to its original depths, widths and the doors put back because they've put
05:07 extended stops on the tidal doors, if they were shortened I believe it would cope with
05:14 today like an ordinary rain. But at the moment it's getting very near to being another flood.
05:21 Every time it rains, it never used to do that. People are worried, should they be? So we
05:29 have had a significant amount of rainfall, particularly in the Wainfleet area over the
05:33 last 24 hours. And this comes on the back of a really wet winter so far. So we've had
05:39 Storm Babette in October and Storm Henk at the new year. So we've got rainfall on already
05:45 saturated catchments right across Lincolnshire and that's causing the rivers to be quite
05:51 high levels at the moment. So currently in Wainfleet itself on the sleeping we've got
05:56 a flood alert which means people should be prepared. Further to that, if we need to,
06:03 we'd issue a flood warning. But we've got staff at the moment monitoring the levels
06:07 throughout the various systems throughout Lincolnshire should that become necessary.
06:12 Now I noticed on your stand, you know, the message, I mean it is a resilience afternoon,
06:17 the message is how to survive flooding. I mean is this a fact of life now? So we've
06:24 seen throughout the last few years that these events are becoming more common. So we would
06:31 urge people, as you say, this is about resilience, this event. So particularly as you mentioned
06:37 there, looking at our flood warning system, so with our flood alerts to prepare for flooding,
06:41 you get a flood warning, you should act on that. And if there's a severe flood warning,
06:46 that's about listening to the emergency services and acting.
06:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]