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BROWN MUST LEARN LESSONS FROM FLOODING IN WALES - OPIK

Commenting on the flooding in Wales, particularly at Tregynon and Bettws Cedewain, and the fact that Gordon Brown cut the flood defence budget by £14million last summer when Chancellor, Lembit Opik, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and MP for Montgomeryshire said:

“The situation at Tregynon and Bettws Cedewain is extremely worrying. The first priority is to help those villages as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“I can see that the new houses that were built in Tregynon were always going to be potentially at risk from flooding. Even the existing houses are low-lying and in danger anyway. This is all depressingly predictable.

“The Government must now give the overall responsibility for flooding to the Environment Agency and put a significant amount of investment in flood defences.

“In my personal opinion, we are witnessing climate change at play this summer and scientists predict that extreme weather patterns like this are only going to increase.

“In this context, it is all the more alarming that Gordon Brown chose to cut the flood defence budget by £14million last summer. We need to be lowering our carbon emissions not our flood defences.

“Climate change is not an inconvenience, it is a crisis. It is about time Gordon Brown learnt this lesson and developed a concerted and bold plan to combat climate change.”