Flood-hit farmers in East Yorkshire have been left to pick
up an £18m bill, it was revealed today.
Thousands of acres of crops and grassland were washed out by last summer's
deluge.
The huge damage figure will be used as evidence by East Riding Council in
its bid for flood relief funding from the European Emergency Fund.
But some farmers say rather than being compensated, they
would like any grants to be spent on preventing such a disaster happening
again.
Farmers made a plea for greater maintenance of waterways at a meeting with
Environment Agency regional directors in Beverley. Landowners claim lack of
maintenance by the agency means two main drainage arteries, the River Hull
and Holderness Drain, are failing to move large volumes of water.
Regional directors of the Environment Agency and National Farmers' Union (NFU)
also visited farmer Martin Voase, who lost £200,000 income due to flooded
crops.
Mr Voase, of Inn Carr Farm, Brandesburton, said: "I'm not looking for
compensation - I want the infrastructure to stop this happening again.
"The River Hull and Holderness Drain have been neglected for 20 years.
"It is vital any European funding is spent on dredging, weed-cutting and the
maintenance of banks at these vital waterways to keep them free-flowing."
Flood-hit farmers are being urged to provide the council with as much
evidence as possible to back its bid for European Emergency Fund cash.
Mr Voase said: "We now know how much the floods cost farmers, but they must
also assist the council with its on-going mapping of all the affected
areas."
Toby Willison, agency regional director for the North East, said: "It's
clear flooding is a very serious issue for farmers and my concerns now are
to look at how we can help them to help themselves, in partnership with the
NFU.
"Our government remit is largely to deal with the impact of flooding on
people and their property, which often means we have to concentrate on the
risk of flooding in urban areas.
"This does not allow us to help farmers as much as we would like, but we do
need to work with them to improve the situation and our meeting was very
constructive."
Richard Ellison, NFU regional director, said: "It is essential we do not see
a repeat of the devastating effect last summer's flood had on farm
businesses."