Flooding (Cumbria)

In thanking the Secretary of State for his statement, may I add my thanks to all those who have worked heroically since the early hours of Thursday morning to protect residents, homes and businesses throughout Cumbria? My brother-in-law is a member of Cumbria constabulary, and I have many friends in the force. They, like the whole community, are devastated by the loss of PC Barker, and I join the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister in conveying my sympathy to PC Barker's family. I assure them of our prayers of support and immense gratitude for his service to our community and for his heroism. I also join the Secretary of State in his expressions of sympathy to the families of Michael Streeter and Chris Wheeler. Throughout my constituency, the police, the fire service, the ambulance service, the coastguard and South Lakeland district council deserve our thanks and praise, as do the volunteers in mountain rescue and in bay search and rescue. Our whole local community, and our local media, deserve praise, too. As of yesterday afternoon, the flood relief fund stood at £140,000 from voluntary donations alone, and that makes me extremely proud to be a Cumbrian. Since Thursday morning, I have visited residents and businesses in my constituency in Kendal, Burneside, Staveley, Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside. In each place, I have found people who have been devastated by the floods, but they are determined to work together and refuse to be cowed by the devastation. Indeed, the catastrophe has brought our community even closer together. On Thursday, as the River Kent was bursting its banks on Aynam Road in Kendal, I joined dozens of volunteers in a desperate and, I should say, successful bid to move to safety thousands of Christmas presents bound for orphanages in eastern Europe before the flood waters encroached on the warehouse. I walked with a family of local volunteers back to their home on Aynam road. Our mood of optimism and common endeavour fell as we discovered that the children's downstairs bedrooms had been flooded. It was heartbreaking to witness. There, in one vignette, I saw the camaraderie and common endeavour on the one hand, and the deep and devastating loss and upset on the other. Only 10 days ago, I took United Utilities and Environment Agency representatives to Burneside, where I pointed out to them the risk of flooding. United Utilities said that the cause of flooding was the inadequate capacity of the Kendal drainage system, but that an upgrade was a low priority. I am afraid that we have now paid for that complacency; homes in Kendal and Burneside flooded on Thursday. In most cases, they flooded because of a drainage system that was seriously under capacity. Does the Secretary of State agree that we need an upgrade as a priority? I thank the Secretary of State and Environment Agency officials for keeping me well informed throughout the past few days, but may I ask him why residents on the Environment Agency's flood watch call list were not given targeted warnings at all, or, in the case of Burneside, were texted six hours after their homes had been flooded? Given that the national Flood Forecasting Centre has the know-how to predict with pinpoint accuracy the likely communities and streets that will flood, why has it not been allowed to convey targeted warnings in advance to residents and businesses? Will the Secretary of State ensure that insurance companies do not respond to the disaster by hiking up insurance premiums in the affected areas, or by massively increasing the insurance excesses? Does he agree that local authorities should be given the right to turn down any planning application for building in flood-risk areas? Will he acknowledge that the delay in the arrival of the Flood and Water Management Bill has meant that confusion remains over who is responsible for so many aspects of flood prevention? I spent yesterday in Ambleside and Bowness with my family and saw businesses carrying on as usual, refusing to give in to the elements. The spirit out there is indefatigable and the message that those enterprises want me to get across is that the Lake district is very much open for business. The floods have been devastating, but we are made of stern stuff in Cumbria, and we are determined to carry on. Finally, will the Secretary of State join me in calling on the British people to support Cumbria by continuing to visit and enjoy the festive spirit in Britain's most spectacular county?