George Freeman has said that too many people are ‘passing the buck’ when it comes to flooding causing chaos in our region.
Mr Freeman, MP for Mid Norfolk, made his comment as he visited Attleborough to meet with councillors, people from the town and Victoria Crerand, regional network manager for Anglian Water, at New North Road to discuss flooding which occurred this week in the town.
The Anglian Water representative said issues were caused on February 20 and 21 due to heavy rain, a burst water main, a blocked foul sewer pipe and water runoff.
And she confirmed Anglian Water would be launching a full investigation into what happened.
Mr Freeman said this is “climate change affecting us", highlighting it has been the wettest February, January, December, November, October and September on record.
He hopes to bring in a flooding prevention liabilities bill, to make “liability clearer”, adding: “People have got to be clear what their responsibilities are, and at the moment there's been too much buck-passing, too many agencies saying, ‘it's not us’, too much left hand not knowing what right hand is doing.
"So there's both local knowledge and clearer statutory responsibilities and I'm absolutely determined to make sure that the government get that right.
"We can't keep building houses and then allow this to happen here, or elsewhere."
“We could have avoided this poor couple who are now going through the huge trauma of having a flooded house.”
The couple mentioned was Carol and John Trevelyan, who have been living at their New North Road bungalow for just over a year.
The couple has never had flooding in their home before but did see it twice in the garage in the recent deluges.
On Tuesday, two bedrooms had water in them, and the back garden became waterlogged after serious downpours across Norfolk.
Mr Trevelyan who had an operation only on Monday was told to rest and recover.
On Wednesday, Mrs Trevelyan spoke with Anglian Water over the phone telling them of the flooding in the bedrooms.
Then all of a sudden, sewage and dirty water came pouring in through every doorway, “it was up to our ankles”, the pair said.
“We just feel so hopeless that this has happened to our house.”
Later that day, the street saw four fire engines come along to help pump the water from the houses affected by flooding.
The couple, who can hear the squelch of their damp carpets, are now looking to put in an insurance claim and get their home back to some semblance of normality.
Flooding has caused woes across the district these last few weeks, with people in Dereham, Yaxham, and South Creake all reporting sewage spills near their homes.
Mr Freeman has said: “This has got to stop.”
“Everyone accepts that if you live by a river, you're in a low-lying area, there's an occasional risk of flooding.
"What we've seen in the last two or three years is an increase in flooding across the whole of Attleborough.
“This is not an acceptable way for people to live, people who bought their homes in good faith.
"People in Attleborough expect this to be sorted, and I intend to sort it."
He outlined several things he is doing to tackle the issue, from working with those who've been affected and with local councillors to holding the first Norfolk flood summit this summer with all the 36 agencies in Norfolk with responsibility, focusing on inland flooding.
Mr Freeman did say he would not delay new housing developments, like Attleborough Sustainable Urban Extension, as they sort out flooding, but instead use them as a chance to “tidy up old infrastructure that isn’t fit for the scale of housing".
He added: "The housing is an opportunity from the section 106 monies that come to the council to make sure we then properly fix all of the flooding issues here."
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