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Flood-hit rivers in Somerset Levels will be dredged, Cameron assures residents Army on standby to provide flood victims with food and transport
(about 7 hours later)
More rapid action is needed to tackle flooding in the Somerset Levels, David Cameron said today, warning that Whitehall arguments must not hold up help for residents in devastated areas. Specialist Army vehicles could be drafted in to help tackle flooding, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said.
The Prime Minister said dredging of rivers would start as soon as the present waters could be reduced to safe levels and promised extra pumps to help speed up the process. The Ministry of Defence is in talks to deploy equipment and manpower to help those in affected areas by delivering food, transporting people and delivering sandbags.
He told MPs he would “rule nothing out” in dealing with the situation as the Government’s emergency Cobra committee met again to find ways to ease the situation. The move comes after David Cameron said rapid action is needed to deal with the flooding in the Somerset Levels, and also warned Whitehall that arguments must not hold up help for residents.
The Levels have been badly hit by floods in recent weeks with villages such as Muchelney cut off for almost a month. There are fears it could be many weeks before the water is completely pumped away. The Prime Minister said dredging of rivers would start as soon as the present waters could be reduced to a safe level and promised extra pumps to speed up the process. And he told MPs he would “rule nothing out” as the Government’s emergency Cobra committee met again to find ways to ease the situation.
Local Liberal Democrat MPs Jeremy Browne and David Heath confronted Mr Cameron in the Commons over what was being done. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Paterson said: “As we speak, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Local Government are discussing how we could deploy specialist vehicles which could help some of those villages which have been cut off, to help people travel backwards and forwards, to get fuel and food in and out, and to help with transport from dry land.”
The Prime Minister paid tribute to the efforts made so far by Environment Agency staff, emergency services and flood wardens to restore normal life, adding that dredging “will help to make a long-term difference”. He told MPs: “It is not currently safe to dredge in the Levels. But I can confirm that dredging will start as soon as it is practical, as soon as the waters have started to come down.” John Osman, leader of Somerset County Council, welcomed the plan. “This is just what we wanted to hear from the Prime Minister,” he said. “We have lobbied hard to get national attention.”
The agency insists more dredging of rivers would not have prevented the flooding.
PAPA