Rushcliffe MP Ruth Edwards is asking flood-hit communities to get in touch as she looks to tackle flooding problems across her constituency.
Ruth will be holding a series of meetings with residents to hear about the issues they face during periods of bad weather. She will also gather local experience and ideas on how authorities can best stop local flood problems in the future.
The first event will be held in Tollerton this Friday (17th January) at a flood victim’s house at 2 pm and will hear from residents from places such as Tollerton Lane who suffered extensive damage in December.
Ruth wants to build case studies and gather evidence to present to a key stakeholder summit in the future. She will be holding further meetings in other flood-affected areas such as East Leake, Gotham, Ratcliffe-on-Soar and Cotgrave in the next few weeks.
It is hoped that each local meeting will nominate a representative to attend the summit with Ruth and organisations such as Nottinghamshire County Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Severn Trent and Environment Agency.
“The recent flooding was a real trial for many communities in Rushcliffe and we must ensure as much as possible can be done to stop any future incidents or, at least, lessen their impact,” said Ruth.
“From what I saw in December, blocked drains contributed to the problem as did some delays in the delivery of sandbags to threatened homes.
“Identifying and fixing small issues such as these would have a huge impact on many local areas.
“I also want to look at the fundamental causes of flooding in our villages and develop both local solutions to particular problems and a broad ‘source to sea’ approach for how we manage water flow.
“In order to do both of these, we need to find out more from all the communities affected so we can take what happened to the authorities and look to build an action plan to give communities confidence when there is next prolonged heavy rain.
“The first meeting is this week but I want to hear from more local communities and meet as many as I can. If your area was affected by flooding, then please get in touch and I will organise a local meeting in your area.”
Ruth can be contacted at: ruth.edwards.mp@parliament.uk