Winter Floods

Jeremy Browne Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I do not think that we need to worry about the Secretary of State being bullied. Any Bradford Bulls supporter well knows how to deal with being bullied.

[Mr Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane) (LD)]

To offer a balanced view, it is fair to say that many residents of Somerset feel that the Government were slow off the mark, but they are now grateful that the Government appear to be acting in a way that matches the enormous size of the challenge, particularly in dredging the River Tone and the River Parrett. Will the extra funding support, which the Secretary of State talked about today and the Prime Minister talked about yesterday, be made available in the long term for long-term solutions? There is now flooding right across Taunton Deane, not just on the Levels, and dealing with the problem requires a river catchment approach and a longer-term view, not only immediate responses to emergencies.

[Mr Pickles]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend that the question is one of river catchments and long-term solutions. Our priority is obviously to deal with the immediate aftermath, but we clearly need to look at dredging. The previous Government probably made a mistake in ending the dredging.

For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Deputy Speaker, when I referred to being “bullied”, I was using the term ironically.