Paul Rowen MP’s speech at his Adjournment debate

Paul Rowen MP

Can I thank House for the opportunity to raise issues surrounding the heavy rainfall and flood that occurred in Rochdale on 21 January.

Having just returned from Bangladesh I can appreciate that the problems in Rochdale and the UK are nowhere near as great. Nor were the problems in Rochdale as bad as occurred elsewhere in the summer of 2007.

However both these demonstrate, as Sir Michael Pitt said in his interim report, that “flood risk is here to stay”.

Prior to this debate I have had discussions with the Environment Agency, Rochdale Council and some of the people affected.

All have been positive and have indicated that important lessons both locally and nationally can be learned from this and other similar incidents.

Flooding in Rochdale occurred in the following areas:

1. At the bottom of Bury Road/Mellor Street junction due to a non-main river that is culveted under the road. This drains into the river Spodden but because of the volume gushed up through a manhole cover. I am told that this area has flooded 8 times this year and there is an urgent need to resolve this problem.
2. In Littleborough where seven homes in the Whalley Avenue and Calder Avenue areas were flooded. The cause of this problem is well known. Houses built higher up on land which formerly had a mill lodge have caused a culvert to collapse. Up to 50,000 gallons a minute were flowing down the remaining sewer.
3. The River Roch overtopped its banks on the Keller Street/Heybrook area, flooding cellars and allotments. Several horses had to be rescued by the Fire Service, though regrettably other livestock on the allotments were drowned.

There are clearly implications in terms of future house building on where new houses are build and whether they will continue to have insurance if they are built on river flood plains.

Indeed the ABI has said that a third of the three million new homes the Government planned to build will be on a flood plain – if that remains the case then flood insurance may not remain available with severe implications for home owners.

In the town centre the college car park was flooded, threatening an electricity substation. Staff in town centre offices, the Town Hall and College were evacuated as a precaution. As this photo of the Lviv Bridge shows, the Roch came dangerously close to flooding the whole town centre. 

This incident and those from last summer as shown by both the Environment Agency’s report and that by Sir William Pitt illustrate the following points:

1. A lack of co-ordination between the Environment Agency, Council, Highways Agency and United Utilities about who is doing what. For example, people ringing the council were given three different phone numbers for officers to contact.
   The Mellor Street/Bury Road junction has been flooding for years with both the council and United Utilities saying it was not their responsibility. As the recent letter from United Utilities said: “We are not responsible for this flooding, and may I suggest you contact Rochdale Council.”
2. The lack of a flood disaster plan detailing who does what - shopkeepers were questioning why they were not warned when the Council decided to close its offices.
3. The river levels forecasted for Rochdale and Littleborough were below the flood warning trigger level. Nevertheless, in the light of what happened there is a need to review this level.
4. The majority of the flooding was the result of surface water flooding for which no warning is in place with drainage systems being overwhelmed. As a result of this incident the Council has agreed that every gully in the Borough will be cleared in the next twelve months, However these is an urgent need to consider better co-ordination between United Utilities and the Council on the capacity of the drainage system to cope with rainfall that with climate change is becoming the norm.

Rochdale suffered a near miss but unless we act we may not be so lucky again!  What happened here was very nearly as bad as what happened in Doncaster and Hull last year, we just got lucky.  I don’t want to see a repeat of this – that is why urgent action is imperative as the Roch was inches from bursting its banks and flooding our town centre.

In light of these examples, I would like to ask the Minister to consider introducing the following so that we learn the lessons both locally and nationally.

• Introduce a new Floods Act giving the Environment Agency’s strategic overview of all forms of flooding, including surface water flooding and setting out the responsibilities of councils, highways authorities, water companies and builders.
• To require providers of critical services including electricity and water authorities to consider the steps they should take to protect vital power and water supplies.
• To require house builders and infrastructure providers to take action to reduce flood risk. This could be included in both the current Planning Bill and the forthcoming Climate Change Bill. Houses built on flood plains must have adequate flood defences and should be guaranteed flood insurance as a condition of getting planning approval.
• Make information more available. The Environment Agency’s flood watch text messages provide valuable warnings, but are not known by everyone. We need to make at-risk areas more aware of the risks.
• Continue short and long term investment to strength our flood defences.

Mr X, this issue is not unique to Rochdale. Its implications in an era of global climate change affect all of us and have important implications for public policy. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.