Surrey County Councillor Helyn Clack who represents Dorking Rural County Division met Sir Paul Beresford MP for Mole Valley at Strood Green on Sunday to survey the mess and threats the flooding of last week had on the area.
Cllr Clack said that in spite of the good works of the Brockham Flood Forum working locally together across all the agencies such as the County Council, the District Council, Water utility companies and the Environment Agency, a flood plan for Brockham has still not emerged. She asked Sir Paul to intervene with the Environment Agency to push this forward before more residents are subject to repeated flooding in the village.
Helyn said 'the residents of Brockham and, in particular, Strood Green are frustrated by the lack of pace from these strategic agencies to get the plan published which will help improve the resilience of this local area. I recognise that this will need investment in a time of less public resources but residents are telling me that they cannot sleep at night in fear of repeated flooding of their properties’.
The cost of insurance has sky rocketed as well for residents and they cannot be blamed for complaining. One resident told Helyn and Sir Paul they have had an increased annual premium of over £2,000 demanded with £10,000 excess since the floods in 2013. Sir Paul said that this should be capped. Additionally, he is to raise again the blanket flood risk coverage the Environment Agency. While it is appropriate to many properties a significant number are in flood risk zones when there is no known real risk of flooding. Some of these properties have unfairly had large insurance premium increases.
Brockham has a local resilience group known as Brockham Emergency Response Team (BERT) who have managed to equip themselves with pumps, generators and much more to help clear blocked ditches and drains. They have been recognised by Surrey Fire and Rescue and The Lord Lieutenant of Surrey or their good work.
During the heavy rains early in the month, Mole Valley District Council delivered nearly two pallets of sand bags and Surrey County Council emergency teams responded to clear drains and gullies on the roads, but they soon become overwhelmed again and in spite of BERT managing to find additional pumps the current infrastructure is obviously not able to cope with heavy rainfall such as we have had recently. We need proper investment to stop this happening.
Sir Paul and Cllr Helyn Clack remain adamant that further development in this flood plain such as proposed at Tanners Meadow will only make matters worse for the wider Community.
The environment agency is responsible for the River Mole and Tanners Brook. Local landowners are responsible for their ditches and drains. Housing Associations and Mole Valley District Council are responsible for clearing their ditches and drains on their property. Surrey County Council is responsible for roads and drains and gullies on the roads and is also the Lead authority for flooding.