Flooding

Debate between Lord Pickles and Lord Harrington of Watford

Monday 10th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

We are working closely with the forum. As the hon. Lady suggests, it is doing a terrific job. I do not know about levels of funding, but clearly, if it is taking on additional work for us, we do not want it to be out of pocket.

[Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)]

What plans do the Government have to provide an assessment of local authorities’ plans for flood prevention in the years to come, particularly asking Hertfordshire what plans it has to stop the River Colne flooding and causing disruption to my constituents?

[Mr Pickles]

Local plans are fed in through the local resilience forum to our teams. One thing that has been clear in dealing with all these emergencies is that there have been pretty well worked out plans. We have found it a lot easier when we are dealing with the worries about the Thames valley that a well established pattern is in place. For example, a number of authorities have what they call flood ambassadors, who will liaise individually with individual houses and offer them support. But I will look specifically at my hon. Friend’s constituency.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Pickles and Lord Harrington of Watford

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)]

5. What recent steps his Department has taken to facilitate holocaust survivors in sharing their testimony in communities throughout the UK.

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)]

Hearing survivors’ stories is one of the best ways for communities to remember the obscenity of the holocaust. That is why we have given over £1.8 million to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, so that those stories can be preserved and shared more widely.

[Richard Harrington]

I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. I hope he will join me in commending the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust, of which I am a trustee. We must commend its work in enabling holocaust survivors to share their stories with more than 70,000 young people every year. Does my right hon. Friend also accept that there will be a big challenge ahead in regard to passing on what happened during the holocaust when there are no more survivors around to communicate that message?

[Mr Pickles]

Of course I agree with my hon. Friend. I believe that the trust is doing a series of films, and organising events, where the children of holocaust survivors are taking up witness. One of the most effective things I have ever seen was a film where the daughter of a holocaust survivor took up her father’s testimony. When he was a child, his mother had said, as her final parting to him, “I have lived a long life. You’ve barely started. Do what you need to survive.” It occurred to me that not only was the voice of the father being heard; we were also hearing the voice of a grandmother whom the daughter had never met. That is the final victory over Hitler and over the obscenity of Nazism.