Alec Shelbrooke welcomed the Prime Minister’s Yorkshire Flood Envoy, Robert Goodwill MP, to Elmet & Rothwell on Thursday 14th January.
Over the Christmas and New Year period Alec was out and about across the constituency, helping local residents impacted by flooding and promised to raise several issues to Ministerial attention.
Alec said: “After conducting a survey of all flooding hotspots after Boxing Day on Sunday 27th December 2015 it was evident that most flood defences and alleviation schemes had performed properly and utilised designated floodplains to protect homes and businesses.
Regrettably, some farmers were badly hit by flood water. I am questioning the decision of the Environment Agency to allow flood water covering some areas to recede slowly rather than pumping the water away.
In Woodlesford, flooding of the River Aire and the Aire & Calder Navigation resulted in extensive flooding on land initially proposed for the location of a High Speed Rail route by The Locks. Alongside local residents and HS2 SOWHAT campaigners I have raised this matter with HS2 Ltd on a number of occasions and will now ensure photographs of these floods are used to vindicate those arguments.”
On his return to Parliament after Christmas Alec asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to confirm additional support for flood hit communities in Yorkshire and during the Ministerial to the Rothwell area he highlighted the impact of flooding on the initial proposed route for High Speed Two.
Talking about the timetable for the final route decision on HS2, which is due later this year, Mr Shelbrooke said: “Like most residents I was infuriated to find out last year that Leeds City Council had turned their backs on us in favour of city centre station location that doesn’t particularly help us here in Woodlesford. However, since then I’ve kept up pressure on Ministers detailing exactly why a route passing The Maltings and The Locks is completely inappropriate both in engineering terms and in terms of its close distance to homes. I took the opportunity to show this to the Minister on his visit”.
