1,000 signatures reached
To: The Government
Make sure everyone flooded in February 2020 receives the £5,000 flood resilience grants
Ensure that everyone who flooded this time receives the full flood resilience grant available of £5,000 whether they flooded last time or not
Why is this important?
Our homes and businesses here in the Calder Valley, just as in many areas of the United Kingdom, flooded on Boxing Day 2015 and again in the last two weeks (February 2020) due to Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis. Many of us have lost what was replaced or salvaged last time when any flood measures put in place by the Government since 2015 proved wholly insufficient.
To be honest, it has been devastating to lose so much again. The community always rallies together and helps each other but the Government does not do enough. We have been suffering through flood defence works totalling £32m since Spring 2016 - what with air pollution, earth works damaging buildings that were already flooded, noise pollution, never-ending traffic jams, building works 6 days a week and through the night - and that still hasn't completed for the one village that has gone through it. The scheme has yet to progress to other towns flooded on Boxing Day 2015 and, in the case of Elland, they are due to get no flood defences at all because the Environment Agency said it was not cost-effective.
To refuse to give flood resilience grants to those who have been flooded, whose homes have not been protected despite the millions paid by the Government to private contractors, is beyond heartless.
Many of us have struggled to get insurance at all, despite Government promises and the Flood Re scheme, and those of us who do have incredibly high premiums that local emergency grants simply don't cover.
Most of us who flooded this time flooded last time as the costly flood defence works were both incomplete and actually left us further exposed due to flood walls that were overtopped in 2015 being taken down by the Government contractors VBA and not replaced, due to works not having been done throughout the valley and due to the Environment Agency's own planning deeming certain areas sacrificial and not cost-effective to protect.
In the recent Statement on Flooding in Parliament, on being pressed by Halifax MP Holly Lynch, the Government said the recently announced flood resilience grants - intended to help properties become more resilient to future floods - would not be available for those who flooded last time and who therefore received a grant.
The £5,000 is a blanket amount irrespective of how inundated properties were so those who had a foot of water in their cellar received exactly the same grant as those whose homes were flooded all through. Depending on your property and how the water gets in, the grant would cover the average cost of 2 flood doors and frames which is £4,000. A sump pump in the cellar might cost you £1250/£1500 but it would only work for as long as there was working electricity.
Part of the grant had to be spent on approved surveyors carrying out a Flood Mitigation Report. Our flood mitigation report identified necessary measures costing over 3 times the £5,000 grant and even then, it said, "Due to the location of the building, flood remediation measures will not totally prevent flooding in the future, but if properly implemented may reduce the incidence of flooding by slowing or preventing water entering the property, reduce damage and loss should flooding occur, and allow faster recovery from flooding in the future."
Even spending that money did not stop us being flooded to the same degree, only this time the main points of water ingress were through new points of weakness created by works done to the neighbouring property by the Government contractors VBA.
Arguably, the only owners of homes and businesses who didn't receive a grant last time and who are therefore eligible this time are those who didn't own that home or business last time. Many of those bought those properties at knockdown prices precisely because of the Boxing Day 2015 flooding devaluing and damaging properties; in some cases, they also benefited from works carried out by the Government contractors.
To be honest, it has been devastating to lose so much again. The community always rallies together and helps each other but the Government does not do enough. We have been suffering through flood defence works totalling £32m since Spring 2016 - what with air pollution, earth works damaging buildings that were already flooded, noise pollution, never-ending traffic jams, building works 6 days a week and through the night - and that still hasn't completed for the one village that has gone through it. The scheme has yet to progress to other towns flooded on Boxing Day 2015 and, in the case of Elland, they are due to get no flood defences at all because the Environment Agency said it was not cost-effective.
To refuse to give flood resilience grants to those who have been flooded, whose homes have not been protected despite the millions paid by the Government to private contractors, is beyond heartless.
Many of us have struggled to get insurance at all, despite Government promises and the Flood Re scheme, and those of us who do have incredibly high premiums that local emergency grants simply don't cover.
Most of us who flooded this time flooded last time as the costly flood defence works were both incomplete and actually left us further exposed due to flood walls that were overtopped in 2015 being taken down by the Government contractors VBA and not replaced, due to works not having been done throughout the valley and due to the Environment Agency's own planning deeming certain areas sacrificial and not cost-effective to protect.
In the recent Statement on Flooding in Parliament, on being pressed by Halifax MP Holly Lynch, the Government said the recently announced flood resilience grants - intended to help properties become more resilient to future floods - would not be available for those who flooded last time and who therefore received a grant.
The £5,000 is a blanket amount irrespective of how inundated properties were so those who had a foot of water in their cellar received exactly the same grant as those whose homes were flooded all through. Depending on your property and how the water gets in, the grant would cover the average cost of 2 flood doors and frames which is £4,000. A sump pump in the cellar might cost you £1250/£1500 but it would only work for as long as there was working electricity.
Part of the grant had to be spent on approved surveyors carrying out a Flood Mitigation Report. Our flood mitigation report identified necessary measures costing over 3 times the £5,000 grant and even then, it said, "Due to the location of the building, flood remediation measures will not totally prevent flooding in the future, but if properly implemented may reduce the incidence of flooding by slowing or preventing water entering the property, reduce damage and loss should flooding occur, and allow faster recovery from flooding in the future."
Even spending that money did not stop us being flooded to the same degree, only this time the main points of water ingress were through new points of weakness created by works done to the neighbouring property by the Government contractors VBA.
Arguably, the only owners of homes and businesses who didn't receive a grant last time and who are therefore eligible this time are those who didn't own that home or business last time. Many of those bought those properties at knockdown prices precisely because of the Boxing Day 2015 flooding devaluing and damaging properties; in some cases, they also benefited from works carried out by the Government contractors.
