Further to the notice published on this Site on 19th May, we await the Environment Agency slides before publishing the details of the meeting held at St. Mary's Church Hall on Friday 6th June and will do so just as soon as these become available to us.

The floods which caused such terrible devastation for the Borough earlier in the year were the topic of discussion at a Community Flood Meeting organised by Spelthorne Council and held on the evening of Thursday 5 June at Spelthorne Leisure Centre.

The public meeting, the first of its kind to be organised by a Surrey council, involved all the key agencies responsible for managing the flood crisis and recovery effort; and was attended by over 800 people. The invited representatives came from a number of organisations including the Environment Agency, Surrey Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, Spelthorne Council, Surrey County Council, Thames Water and the National Flood Forum.

The meeting was chaired by Cllr Philippa Broom, Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee and, following the initial introductions, Ian Toames from the Environment Agency gave an overview of the cause and scale of the flooding.

This was followed by a question and answer session during which residents asked questions on a very wide range of topics including how to prevent future flooding, flooding of the River Ash, drainage and sewage problems, the impact o5f Sweeps Ditch, the timing of the army deployment and whether the river should be dredged. Over one hundred questions were submitted in advance of the meeting and residents were also able to ask questions on the night.

Prior to the main meeting, a market place event was held to allow residents to speak directly with the agencies and to ask more detailed questions about their personal circumstances.

Cllr Daxa Patel, Cabinet Member for Emergency Planning said: “Community and Accountability are two of the Council’s core values and this meeting was a very real reflection of our commitment to bring all the agencies together and give residents a voice. As with any emergency, there are always valuable lessons to be learned and together with our partner agencies we are looking at which aspects of the crisis were managed well and which areas need to be improved. Thank you to all the residents who came along and to the organisations which took part.” Daxa was also present at the Sunbury meeting the following day.

Spelthorne Chief Executive, Roberto Tambini closed the meeting with a commitment that Spelthorne Council will work with Kwasi Kwarteng MP and Surrey County Council to narrow the short-fall in funding for the River Thames Scheme and to facilitate local flood meetings to allow the affected communities to continue discussions with the key agencies regarding future flood defences.

Not surprisingly, and given the misery suffered by many Staines and Sunbury residents, both events became highly vocal with residents expressing their well-founded frustration and desperation.The Evnironment Agency and other bodies with responsibility for flood prevention and relief cannot fail to have been impressed by the outpouring of well-informed scepticism and challenges to the status quo.