Streatham's flood damage raises important questions for the future - Nicholson

2.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 1st Aug 2007

After last week's torrential rainfall and flooding, local Liberal Democrat campaigner Chris Nicholson has spoken out against the poor decision making that helped damage many Streatham residents' properties.

As large areas of the country were deeply submerged by several feet of water, some parts of Streatham and Lambeth also suffered from incidents of localised flooding. Several basement flats around the area were particularly affected by flood damage that caused thousands of pounds of damage for unhappy residents.

But Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesperson for Streatham, Chris Nicholson, believes that more could have been done to avoid this damage both locally and at a national level.

Speaking about the flooding, Chris Nicholson said:

"It's clear that more could have been done locally to protect the property of Streatham residents."

"Too many of the road gullies that take away excess water have been left to clog up under our Labour council and Transport for London - we need to clean these gullies more than just once a year to protect against future floods."

"At a national level, it is simply shocking that the Labour government cut the UK's flood defence budget last Summer.(1) With climate change making the risk of extreme weather more likely, we should be putting more money into protecting our homes not cutting back."

Local Liberal Democrat councillor Julian Heather said:

"I have spoken to many local people upset about flood water damaging their belongings."

"We need to make sure that current planning regulations for basement properties are doing enough to protect homeowners from the risk of future flooding."