News Centre

25 Oct 2007

Leaders from all of Oxfordshire's councils have signed a letter to Government  requesting financial help to alleviate problems caused by the funding shortfall of £3.3 million they are experiencing as a result of the county's floods.

The leaders of Oxfordshire County Council, West Oxfordshire District Council, Oxford City Council, the Vale of White Horse District Council, Cherwell District Council and South Oxfordshire District Council have also complained about lack of action on flood alleviation work.

A letter has been sent to Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Community and Local Government about the financial situation. A further letter has been sent to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, about lack of funding for the Environment Agency. The letter contains protests that the protection measures they have for the county provide inadequate protection.

Out of pocket

In the joint letter, to Hazel Blears, leaders said: "At the time of the disaster, central government appeared to make a commitment to fully reimburse local authorities for additional costs incurred.

"In fact, having now had the opportunity to explore fully the various financial aids available, it appears that the people of Oxfordshire will be left very significantly out of pocket from this natural disaster.

"Our current estimate is that the net cost to the combined county and district councils will be in excess of £4million, against which just under £1million will be recoverable and the bulk of that from our insurers.

"The district councils did receive £956,500 of Flood Recovery Grant, however the majority of this has been paid directly to residents affected, with the remainder allocated to working with the affected communities to enable local flood prevention schemes. The sum has therefore not contributed to the funding of council costs."

Significant obstacle

In the letter to Hilary Benn they wrote: "We are very concerned by the Association of British Insurers statement that Government spending for the next three years is less than we were asking for, even before the floods.  It does not begin to address the major issues, including drainage, which were highlighted this summer.

"It is good to learn that the Environment Agency has recently secured significant funding from the Thames region flood defence levies towards the costs of the Banbury Flood Defence scheme. Nonetheless there remain a number of financial, engineering and legal issues that require resolution and we would urge you to press for successful implementation of this important scheme.

"The ability of the Environment Agency to fund major flood defence schemes is a very significant obstacle to better protection of our county.  Such schemes can be extremely expensive, for example the proposal for Oxford is in the region of £150-200 million.

"Some households in Oxford have been flooded three times in the past eight years and we have had no assurance that appropriate and significant steps are being taken by the Environment Agency to ensure that it won't happen again.

"Indeed we understand that the financial constraints on the Environment Agency mean that many of those schemes on the Agency's national priority list seem very unlikely to proceed, including the scheme in Oxford. We would like a commitment from you that financial issues will be addressed and the people of Oxfordshire protected."