THE man given the task of reviewing last summer's floods by

the Government today unveiled almost 100 recommendations for

action.

By their very nature, Sir Michael Pitt's conclusions,

released on the anniversary of the June 25 floods, put forward

a range of broad strategic solutions rather than specifically

local ones.

But many directly echo the Mail's own 10-point Never Again

action plan – aimed at preventing future flooding devastation

in East Yorkshire – which was submitted to Prime Minister

Gordon Brown and his ministers three months ago.

And Sir Michael believes all of the recommendations in his

comprehensive 400-page report are relevant to communities

living under the threat of future flooding.

Some of the issues raised through our Never Again campaign

are already being addressed.

Yorkshire Water, for example, has recently announced a

multi-million pound upgrade of its pumping facilities in Hull,

while the city council became the first local authority in the

country to include the risk of surface-water flooding in its

planning policies for new developments.

Sir Michael, who visited Hull on a number of occasions

during the review, said: “There are some tough issues to sort

out, but there are solutions – all of them practical, sensible

and affordable.

“Every one of the recommendations impacts on the quality of

life of people living in flood risk areas .

“The bottom line is this country was not well-prepared for

flooding last year. Yes, the circumstances were exceptional but

our recommendations are geared up to shaping the national and

local response to flooding in the future.

“Most of the flooding came without proper warning. A great

deal of the flooding was surface-water flooding, which is

harder to forecast and predict.

“A lot of the flooding exposed the weaknesses of critical

infrastructure sites such as waste water treatment works,

pumping stations, motorways and railways. One of our

conclusions is that we can improve the resilience of these

sites.”

Another of the report's themes and the focus of several of

its recommendations is the role of local councils.

“There is a fundamental change needed in the role and

actions of local government,” he said.

“We are arguing for councils to take up a wide range of new

responsibilities for flooding, to define flood-management, to

identify where the drainage is, who owns it and who should be

responsible for it in terms of repair and maintenance.

“Local authorities should also be the lead organisation for

flood risk, emergency planning and response.”