Memorandum submitted by Stephen Watkins
(FL 71)
I am a farmer farming 2500 acres in the flood
plains of the river Severn and Avon, of which 1000 acres was flooded
in July. The crops lost were mainly high value spring sown crops
Potato, Spring onion, Peas, Carrots, Sweet Corn, also damage to
water meadows and general infrastructure, buildings etc. The initial
loss was expected to be circ £250,000 but now the water has
gone this has gone up to over £355,000. All of this loss
is an uninsurable loss.
I would like the committee to consider the following
points.
1. Assistance with clearing up flood rubbish,
why should I have the cost of clearing up other peoples rubbish
then having to pay commercial rates to land fill it.
2. A formula for financial support for those
uninsurable losses eg direct cash, soft loan ( zero% or very low
rate underwritten by Government) to help business trade out of
these losses. Lots of farmers are tenants me included so have
little collateral to borrow against.
3. Cleaning and proper maintenance of all
water ways, dredging, flood bank maintenance etc.
4. With 11 miles of river frontage should
I take the flood defences away—which would cause flash flooding.
Leave as is and accept the losses when the bank is breached and
receive government support when we have summer flooding (March
to October) as this is when I lose my crops. Build the bank higher
as my own insurance and cause greater flooding down stream, the
possible outcome of that this time could have been that the power
station at Gloucester would have been flooded, power to GCHQ would
be lost, does GCHQ have sufficient back up power to protect the
country? So I think the government needs to sit down with interested
parties to come up with a long term solution sooner rather than
later before we all build our banks up.
5. Why did a crew from Italy have to come
to Tewksbury with rescue hovercraft when the Army depot at Ashchurch
(1 mile away) has plenty in storage.
6. Why did the local agricultural engineer
have to phone me to get some pipe fittings, to allow more than
one tanker at a time to fill water at the Strensham water works.
Where is the forward planning?
7. To look at the use of the Army or an on
call civil body to assist the emergency services in this sort
of situation, again look at all the machinery at the army depot,
or call on the farmers with their mobile irrigation pumps. I had
eight available.
8. To look for solutions "outside the
box".
I should like the opportunity to give oral evidence
to the committee as I feel that the practical knowledge and experience
could be of assistance to the discussions.
I look forward to your response.
Stephen Watkins
August 2007
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