Speeches by Buckley.

“To be clear, Ms Connor, if only 40 people had come forward, what would have happened to them? Would they have got a grant?”

“I would like to talk about the important role of community organisations. Mr French, what has helped your community to come together to prepare for flooding? What kinds of support or partnerships have made the biggest difference?”

“Are they from the council? Where are they based? Are they a volunteer?”

“Could I ask the same question of you, Ms Connor? What has helped your community to come together to prepare for flooding? What kinds of support or partnerships have made the biggest difference?”

“Ms Long-Dhonau, what challenges are there in trying to organise or sustain a local flood group? What would make it easier for communities to take action?”

“It is really interesting. That has come up a few times now: the inconsistency in how things operate, because we are relying on volunteers? You have inconsistency of geography, and then you have that inconsistency, where people are getting on with their lives. It waxes and wanes around the regularity of the flooding. I …”

“It is about remuneration. You also talked in your evidence about training. I noticed also that one of the other flood action groups, at Watton and Saham, talked about a national handbook for each community, so, again, you have that consistency. What were your views on that?”

“That is really helpful. My final question is to Ms Connor: to what extent do you feel that your group’s knowledge and experience has been listened to or used by local authorities, agencies or national bodies, and what could help to improve that relationship?”

“Just to be clear, the same council that told you to move your car is giving you a parking fine.”

“How would you like that to change? If you were in charge, how would you organise this?”

“That would certainly be very welcome. It certainly speaks to what the residents were telling us: that they are ready for that engagement, but they feel that no one is listening. What they really want to know, Ms Foley, is how well you, as agencies and authorities, collaborate with each other in practice to deliver floo…”

“They are very helpful. I hope that they are not a lucky few examples or the exception that proves the rule. We received a lot of written evidence for this inquiry that repeated the first half of your message. There are strategic requirements and duties on different agencies and bodies to collaborate and work together, …”

“Do you recognise the relationship there? Well-maintained assets could be a really cheap preventative piece, instead of allowing things to fail.”

“That is a very helpful recommendation.”

“That is really helpful. Water knows no boundaries, but apparently if it is groundwater it is somebody’s problem, and if it is river water it is somebody else’s. Do you recognise that having different agencies responsible for different types of water is incredibly frustrating for residents?”

“Do you feel that the Environment Agency takes responsibility in those scenarios?”

“Who do you think is responsible in that scenario? You are an expert in this room. If that were to happen again today, to me, who would you advise me to contact? Who is responsible in that scenario?”

“When will the review conclude?”

“I have a small follow-up on your remarks about the resilience measures and the fact that you are feeding into the review at the moment. We have some examples in Shrewsbury, where residents applied for a grant and got planning permission for flood doors, but they have to go through the framework of contractors, so they …”

“Thank you. That is really helpful.”