Flooding (Cumbria)

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. I and my constituents pass on our condolences to the family and friends of PC Barker. I phoned the chief constable on Friday to pass on those condolences. I also thank the Secretary of State for his customary courtesy since the crisis broke in keeping Members of Parliament in the county informed of developments. I wish that every Minister would follow his example. My constituency, on the eastern side of Cumbria, has been less affected on this occasion than it has in the past. When I visited those in Appleby and Eamont Bridge who had been affected, on Saturday, their hearts went out to their fellow Cumbrians in the west of the county who had been devastated. In Appleby, the experiment by the Environment Agency of individual household floodgates worked about 98 per cent. of the time. The two occasions on which they did not work were in one house that was way below the river level and one that had a wonky doorstep. I plead with the Secretary of State to consider a small-scale scheme in Eamont Bridge, where we will need something different from and better than individual floodgates to help. I also thank the emergency services in Cumbria and all the other volunteers. I echo the point made by the right hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton). Devastating though this is for the individuals in Cumbria who have been flooded—and there is nothing worse than seeing a house that has been flooded—Cumbrians will get on with drying their places out. We will pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, but we cannot rebuild the bridges and the infrastructure. Cumbria is 300 miles from London, and we depend on transport links to London, and on having the best transport links in our county. I plead with the Secretary of State to ensure that we get our bridges rebuilt, not just our trunk roads. We have a record amount of flooding in Cumbria. We also have the record for the longest serving temporary Bailey bridge in history. The bridge over the River Eden between Penrith and Langwathby was washed away in 1968, and we are still using the Bailey bridge, which has survived various floods. I know that the Secretary of State will not wish to go down in history as installing the largest number of temporary Bailey bridges.