Anger at flood snub

UCKFIELD will not receive a major new flood alleviation scheme because flooded businesses were not considered important enough to protect, it was claimed this week.

The leader of Wealden District Council, Rupert Thornely-Taylor, claimed that commercial premises were 'ignored' during an Environment Agency-commissioned investigation into the October 2000 flood.

Cllr Thornely-Taylor said that a scoring system used to assess flood affected areas rated commercial properties as 'not important at all' compared to residential properties. Eighty-four per cent of properties flooded in Uckfield on October 12, 2000 were commercial, retail or public premises.

Cllr Thornely-Taylor said: 'Most of the damage done was to commercial premises on the Bellbrook Estate, Boots and at the bottom of the High Street.

'However, the Environment Agency does not take account of damage to commercial premises in the way they do for private residents.

'If someone is distressed because their workplace is flooded and they've lost their job it's not something to be taken into account but if you come home and find your house flooded that is. As far as the Environment Agency is concerned, commercial premises are not important at all.'

The Environment Agency claimed last month that there was 'no free standing economic case to provide a major new flood alleviation scheme for Uckfield'. However, Cllr Thornely-Taylor said: 'The notion that a Government agency is required to ignore damage to commercial premises beggars belief.

'If there was no employment in Uckfield, Uckfield would become a ghost town. It's not as if it's a commuter town, with the rail links it has to London or anywhere else. The only hope for Uckfield is continued high levels of employment in the town itself.'

Inflated

He said that traders were either being refused insurance or were asked to pay inflated premiums, but pointed out that the few residential properties flooded in Uckfield had the same problem. 'A lot of people in Olives Meadow cannot get any insurance; they are just refused point-blank,' he said.

A meeting of Wealden's cabinet this week voted to voice the council's 'dissatisfaction' at the Environment Agency's stance over flood alleviation for the River Uck.

It also resolved to ask the agency to extend a proposed study into the river flow capacity of the High Street bridge to take in the river beyond the Roller Mill.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: 'Residential properties hold people over 24 hours. Commercial buildings tend to operate only between office hours. When you consider the risk to people and risk to life it is perhaps understandable why benefit-cost guidelines look on residential properties more favourably.'

However, he added: 'Benefit-cost analysis does look at the impact of commercial property and business loss to the economy.'