Tapping into strong community spirit

Photo: Hayley Power

Flooding on Todmorden Road on Boxing Day

Dear Editor,

Obviously, at the start of the floods, the emergency services were terrific in the way they responded and helped and, as a community we would want to send them an enormous thank you to them for their professionalism and support.

But, we also need to celebrate all those members of our community who stood up and were counted by helping and supporting our fellow citizens in all sorts of ways. Whether it was donating things to St Barnabas’ Church, working to distributing what was donated, helping neighbours clean up or just simply giving somebody who has been hit by the floods a hug.

Equally importantly, we mustn’t forget the people who worked hard for such long hours providing advice and support for those most severely hit by the floods.

The people representing RMBC were working unpaid and were supported largely by people from our local folk group Oakenhoof (including children as young as nine). Other people came and gave their time freely whether it was clearing drains, hauling out marooned cars, repairing electrics, shifting furniture, the 'A Team cleaning squad', all the people who shifted and delivered over six tons of sand to our most vulnerable houses or all the other individuals and businesses too numerous to mention.

The citizens of Littleborough certainly stepped up to the mark when times were tough and we now need to tap into that strong community spirit.

So, next week the Civic Trust are meeting with the key people involved from both RMBC and voluntary organisations to start the process of drawing up a community response plan that can sit alongside the RMBC plan and make sure we can tap into that strong community spirit and support each other even more effectively if, or when, this happens again. In this way, despite there being a few minor concerns about how the initial response to the floods in Littleborough was coordinated, we are confident that they can, and will, be sorted out for the future.

Peter Hook
Chairman - Littleborough Civic Trust