Speeches by Buckley.

“Moving beyond our boundaries is the only way we are going to do this.”

“That is the thing that you have done differently. Now, on to the question I was supposed to ask, before the Chair notices: Jonathan Moxon, you have previously indicated that securing direct funding from private businesses is particularly difficult. Could you tell us what you think the main barriers are? Is it uncertain…”

“I am going to ask the same question of you, Mr Shepherd, and hope that you are going to give me a much more positive answer, as somebody who cares about businesses that are not able to get insurance against flooding.”

“Moving beyond our boundaries is the only way we are going to do this.”

“We need to be able to use your example as a case study. I would like your permission for us to do that, because we need to be able to demonstrate to other parts of the country that this is doable and pays for itself. We need to get past that silo thinking. This Committee did a trip to the Netherlands, where we heard ho…”

“That is incredible. That is a really powerful statement. You are talking about how schemes take eight years to get together. In seven years, that will have paid for itself and you have gone from 69% risk to 0.5%.”

“Shrewsbury has waited 10 years for a Labour Government to bring forward this Bill. Over the course of the last Government, our county of Shropshire lost over 63% of our bus routes, meaning that two out of three buses have been withdrawn. That was due to the savage privatisation that forced bus companies to pursue profi…”

“Q8. The Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway is on track to link north Wales and my Shrewsbury constituency directly to London, with five trains daily, strengthening cross-border travel and fuelling this Government’s mission to drive economic growth. With 15 Members from constituencies along the route already on bo…”

“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?”

“I do not know if you were listening, but in the previous panel the residents told us that agencies do not take responsibility. They push it on to all the other agencies. So far, each of you has talked about other agencies that are responsible. Are the residents right?”

“I declare an interest: Siobhan Connor is known to me as a very active constituent in Shrewsbury.”

“Ms Connor, you mentioned that you organised a public meeting to find 50 other flooded homes in order to access the grant. Could you explain that, in case the others are not aware? What would have happened to your grant if 49 other homes had not been found?”

“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?”