'Northwich flood defences did work' says Environment Secretary

Mr Eustice toured the town this afternoon (January 22), and said that the flooding seen in the past week was caused by ‘a lot of surface water, [so] the drainage system couldn’t cope’.

Speaking to PA Media, he said: “In 2016, we had a major flood scheme here, £7 million was invested for about 1.7km of extra defences in this area. Those defences did work, they did hold the river back  “What we saw here as in some other areas, with such high rainfall — more rain in 48 hours than we would see in the entire month of January — was a lot of surface water, the drainage system couldn’t cope, which is why we have had to bring some additional pumping equipment to get the water back into the river.

“The issue we had was with surface water drainage, and I do know both the Environment Agency, United Utilities and the local authority are working on a plan to try to improve that drainage so it’s got the capacity with these sorts of rainfall.”

The Conservative MP went on to tell the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the government is considering altering the funding formula which dictates where flood defence spending is allocated.

He said: “During Storm Christoph we’ve protected around 27,000 homes through the investments we’ve made over the last decade or so and we’re making more investments in the future.

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“One of the things we are certainly looking at is, with that additional capital money — some £5.2 billion — is putting in an additional weighting for frequently flooded communities.

“So the communities that don’t just get flooded once in every 15 or 20 years, those that get flooded sometimes three or four times in a decade, we want them to be able to get access to more funds to improve the schemes in those towns.”

However, when asked by the LDRS if the government would make it easier for councils to access emergency response funding — by lowering the ‘damage-threshold’ in the Bellwin Scheme — Mr Eustice did not confirm this move was on the cards.

The MP for Camborne and Redruth added: “When you get a major event and cost get to a certain level, the Bellwin Scheme is activated. That’s to help local authorities with costs that they couldn’t have otherwise provided for.

“Local authorities obviously do have their own budgets. They are given a grant — some of which is for them to be used on particular situations that they’re responsible for — so they do have contingency funds to be set aside for events like this.”