Plea for more flood cash

CAMPAIGNERS are urging East Sussex County Council to bite the financial bullet and pay its full share of the Environment Agency s budget levy on local authorities to pay the costs of local flood defence work.

Lewes Flood Action, which represents the interests of people and small businesses flooded 15 months ago, is deeply concerned at the effect under-funding will have on the building of new flood defences, and how this could effect future grant aid from the Government for this purpose.

The group put some challenging questions to senior councillors at the county council s meeting on Tuesday but spokesman Peter Atkins said later that some of the replies were 'aridly obscure .

Some thought the long list of statistics given was designed 'more to obscure than to clarify the position .

And Mr Atkins added: 'Funding matters like this are notoriously hard for ordinary people to grasp, and we really wanted our elected representatives to tell us what their real intentions are as regards the protection of Lewes from future floods.

'Instead we got a virtuoso demonstration of smokescreen-laying. It simply isn t good enough.

'Do they or don t they care enough about the future protection of 800 flooded households, in Lewes alone, to pay their proper share of the costs?

The Environment Agency wants a 14 per cent per cent increase on last year s funding.

It is thought that East Sussex County Council is more likely to offer eight per cent.

At the same time it is understood that West Sussex is offering to pay its full share of the levy.

Flood Action chairman Paul Mockford said many Lewes people felt extremely let down.

l The Environment Agency is to make its bid at a meeting of the Sussex Flood Defence Committee, on which East Sussex has representatives, in Worthing on Wednesday.