To feel that the South West has been abandoned (long and ranty)

[zeezeek]

My family still live in Cornwall and they have been completely battered by the wind and the rain for weeks now. Last night they had to be evacuated from their house. The main train line down to Cornwall (in fact also half of Devon) is completely destroyed and a lot of prime agricultural land in Somerset is under water.

People are losing their livelihoods and they have been lucky that there have been no loss of life. In a region where there is already high unemployment - the impact on the farming, fishing and tourist industries will just make the situation worse. Freight trains can no longer get down past Exeter.

The EA are effectively blaming the poor buggers who are affected by this and seemingly forgetting that people and homes are also affected. The government doesn't give a shit and the Environment minister didn't even bother taking a pair of wellington boots with him on his photo opp visit. Our future King made silly comments about how a disaster beings people together while his waste of space daughter in law spends taxpayers money jetting off to the Caribbean. Comments in sensible, intelligent newspapers are also blaming people for daring to live on a flood plain (which has never flooded to this extent) and by the sea.

I know that I am BU, but tonight - when my parents are still not allowed home and my brother has had his fishing boat sunk - I am feeling very, very pissed off with the media who seems to be making such a big deal out of a 2 day tube strike - there are buses.

Sorry, but needed to vent. Have nothing against Londoners - I lived there for years.

Changebagandgladrags - we're not talking about loss of trade for businesses, we are talking about people's homes and livelihoods! And most of them are not villages in the middle of nowhere, it's major cities and towns, there is more to Devon & Cornwall - have you been!!! Yes the tube strike must be miserable, I'll have to endure it next week, but at least there are other options, we have none!

YANBU, Op people in the South West have long known that they only feature in the minds of the government and media when they are planning their holidays or buying second homes! However, I understood that the comments made by Prince Charles in Somerset yesterday were reported as him having a dig at the powers that be for ignoring the area for so long.

you can have the money for hs2. anyone near that will willingly send it your way! and quite honestly the line to the southwest is in more need than an extra line to birmingham, taking about ten minutes off travel time. goodness knows how long the travel is taking past devon now.

if they are going to let farm land flood, then they need to think about alternative crops and subsidies to get things started. there used to be watermeadows that flooded every year so looking at what modern farming would suit a similar system would be a start. they can not however, write off acres of land to flooding without thinking of the consequences on food supplies and prices. whatever should be growing on that land is going to increase in price dramatically.

Of course I have been to the SW.

I'm not saying it isn't news. It is news. Big news. It is the top story on BBC. Where it should be.

London is also news. Quite big news. I think it's the second story, and was for much of the day, third UK story. Where it should be too.

What I'm trying to say is what is the point in complaining about other stories also being news? Because I'm sure there are plenty of people who cloud also look at the SW of England and think pah, call that an important story.

It is all news.

Things are bad here, I'm lucky enough to not be affected by not too far away its dire. There's a FB group FLAG and reading the plight of some is horrible. To make matters worse the local councils are charging for sang bags I now see a local business is offering them for 25p each plus VAT, MUCH less than the council were going to charge

Politicians should be judged not on media soundbites, but as the managers and custodians of the nations's infrastructure. A manager of any company that allowed it's buildings to decay to the extent UK infrastructure has would be sacked sharpish.

For decades now actually running the country in an efficient manner has been of no interest to politicians. Until they see "ability to maintain the nations basic infrastructure as a true vote winner this won't change, and they'll continue to waste our money on "sexier causes". It's not just flood defences, we are predicted to have rolling blackouts in a few years time because they haven't managed the electricity system either.

At the next general election we should ALL start asking questions of our leaders such as:-

1/ What is your party going to do to make sure the trains run on time?

2/ Please explain this area's sewer upgrade programme?

3/ How much do you intend to ensure is spent on flood defences over the course of the next parliament?

4/ How do you intend to ensure that the insurance industry pay process claims for home owners and businesses within 28 days of a disaster. What are you doing to remove the phrase "act of God" from policies?

5/ Describe how you will ensure local potholes are fixed in a timely manner and to what extent you will refund council tax payers if they are not?

6/ How long does it take the average resident to reach the nearest A& E in the event of an emergency?

Once the doorstep campaigners, are regularly being asked this type of question, and letters to the editor from the public in the press keep popping up, attitudes will change at the top. MP's & local councillors should EXPECT to lose their seats if the trains stop running, or the local high street floods. Once the fat cat's gravy train depends on the basic necessities of life running smoothly then & only then will they do their flipping jobs instead of posturing and posing the world stage like the emperor with no clothes!

Well said boc. Im in Essex but i just wanted to say im sorry for what ppl in the SW are going through. And my thoughts are with you. The stress must be bloody astronomical.

Hear hear Boc

MrChow I'm sure there will be others who know better than me but there was a woman on tv a while ago who was some sort of expert on flood defence and she said sand bags were worse than useless. She recommended some kind of barrier products that go across doors, airbricks, etc

I think unfortunately our government and our media are so London-centric that they will never get things right for other regions because they don't care about these areas other than when it impacts on them.

The cynic in me wonders if at some point soon the government will raise queries about not rebuilding the Somerset levels or putting in flood defences so that they can embark on the Severn barrage. The barrage plans, which have been a Tory pet project for decades, require the flooding of parts of the levels.

Total cost was projected at 60+ billion. Can't recall what the environment agency's most recent position on it was.

Actually the military assessed Somerset and said there was nothing that could be done.

I think people either have short memories or just don't pay attention. EVERY year Tewkesbury floods. Does anyone give a crap? Before anyone says anything I'm lucky enough to live in South Devon. The train line wasn't washed away last year - it got blocked by land slides.

What Boc said makes sense, but it's all long-term. There's not much govt can do in short-medium term short of offering temp housing which I think they already are.

There was a gal on Radio4 who did radio recordings of her day in the floods.
She went out to lunch. Really, that was it. And talked about water lapping at her property before & after. So had the adventure of driving too & from the pub on flooded roads. It didn't really scream emergency disaster to me.

I don't think YABU, BUT other parts of the country have been horrendously affected too especially parts of the North/East Yorkshire coast.

Same situation - homes plummeting into the sea, whole villages cut off.

I wonder whether your argument was made then too?

What has happened has been atrocious and shouldn't have happened at all. The response has been questionable.

YANBU. This country has become extremely London-centric.

I do sympathise with the OP in her view that the SW has been abandoned. It certainly can seem that way. But I think it's more a rural/urban split, rather than London vs the rest of the country.

There is a road near me (in Devon) that's been closed since the December 2012 floods when a bridge washed away. There is still no bridge there, and no road. It's a rural road, and I would think that if it had been in a town it would have been repaired by now.

Yasoooooonbu

Had to snigger at the Facebook thing going round entitled " oh your commute was bad was it".

That said it was pretty much the only thing to lighten a crappy situation.

Utterly fed up with how London focused this gov and country seem to be,without a thought for the rest of the country.

Quite clearly if it ain't happening in London it ain't worth worrying about.

I find Ikeas posts quite offensive.Locals do rely on public transport just as much as Londoners. Wages are lower down here,many people have only 1 car per family so public transport is crucial.

Said storm was quite scary,we're 20 minutes from the sea and lost fences which is no big deal but the whole night we were worrying re friends nearer the sea.Methinks if the Thames was lapping not too far from the doors of Londoners and their friends a little more action and empathy would be happening.

Link

I am really saddened by some of the attitudes- choosing to live on a flood plain, own fault for living by the sea, waste of money for just a few people etc. etc. Yes, we all have things to contend with but where's the empathy? We feel incredibly let down here in the South-West.

I live just outside of bristol and it has been all over our media for weeks.

I am in the south west and live in a flood risk area. When we bought the property we were very cautious however the river hadn't flooded since the 1960's and since then money has been poured into the flood defences. We got good value for money because of it and its our forever family home, so decided we were going to take the risk.
The trouble is with the insurance, is a lot of companies will say they can cover you but when you start going through the paperwork with a fine tooth comb you realise that you will not be insured against flood damage even though they would tell us on the phone that we were!!

We ended up with an independent specialist company and pay through the nose for it, but we do know we are fully insured.

We bought the property at our own risk, we have taken that on board and accept it.

However we do expect the government to keep up the flood defence maintenance and work! I think when they cut flood defence work and then stand back and tell people they should be insured is not on!

We have been lucky as 2 years ago we had a real scare (villagers said they hadn't seen it like that since the 60's, typical our luck!) with our river and it did flood, however the flood defence did as it should and it did not affect property only the flood plain fields. Because of that the council stood up and took notice and have poured more into our flood defences which was long overdue because of the government cuts.
I would not be happy if they left the defences to deteriorate further and then we flooded. I pay tax and I expect it to be kept up.

I think if the government has been neglectful in this way as I know in some areas they have, they should then foot the bill.

Even if the government have kept the work up and yes then the home owners should take responsibility and have there own plans. HOWEVER thing that angers me is that many of these home owners I expect do have insurance but when it comes to flooding they are not insured as they thought they were. I know from experience how easily that can happen and in that case I think its not up to the government but the insurance companies to cough up! Its not fair to pull the wall over peoples eyes and then stand back and laugh when it all hits the fan, because they have been mis sold and didn't read the small print.
I do think it is up to the government to set clear guidelines for this.

The point I'm trying to make is yes if your in a flood risk area, yes except the risk and get yourself insured. However if the flood has been partly down to neglect from the government they have a right to be angry and expect assistance.
Equally If you have insurance and the insurance company has not been honest they should be expected to assist.

I'm in Dorset so not quite SW but the saddest thing has been the local over-50s mobile home park flooding before Xmas.

It has never flooded before and the people living there are the poorest in society - they can't afford to buy an actual property.
It's hard if not impossible to insure a mobile home I believe.
I'm not sure what they are going to do now.

Another local mobile home park flooded too but not as badly as the first one.

I have nothing but sympathy for everyone affected by the floods & storms.

I spend a lot of time in East Devon (Exmouth area) each year and have been keeping an eye on the local news. I completely understand why people are so devastated. It is so hard to earn a good living down there as it is, due to lower wages & so much employment being seasonal. The season starts on 21st March (well, that's when the big holiday parks re-open anyway). That gives around 6 weeks for people to rebuild their businesses & train line and prepare for the tourist season. Considering the storms have not even finished yet, that's just not going to happen.

An ice-cream kiosk on Exmouth seafront has been destroyed (just as an example, I am sure many more businesses have been lost or damaged). Even though their insurance should cover the replacement costs (hopefully) the owners will still inevitably miss part of the season. The impact of this is huge - it is no good being ready to go by September, when you'll barely sell anything until next March. Likewise, the train line being down - obviously, a lot of holiday makers simply will not travel to South Devon or Cornwall until the line is repaired. When you are a community dependant on the holiday makers to make a living, this is disastrous.

Then add to that, the flooding problems that occur everywhere there is flooding - damage to homes, loss of power etc. All in all, I can totally understand the feeling of desperation in the South West.

EVERY year Tewkesbury floods.

NO it doesn't. The local council have taken great care to assure potential tourists that Tewkesbury itself is still open. The area around Tewkesbury is prone to flooding but the town itself is doing fine. I'm actually going there tomorrow on the bus (I live nearby) and getting there and back won't be a problem. After 2007 people seem to think Tewkesbury = Flooding. Not the case.

I live in the SW but am SE born and raised. You do notice a huge difference between how these parts of the country are treated when you've lived in both. Like someone said upthread, most London-centric people (particularly politicians) only think of the SW in relation to holiday homes.

The infrastructure here in the SW is not as developed as it should be (don't get me started on how long a train takes to get to London for example) and SW people quite rightly feel neglected.

YANBU.

If this was happening in London it would be massive news.

There would be a massive operation to clear up the mess and plan short and long term strategies to prevent it.

No one is blaming the weather. Just the response to it and some serious questions about whether an adequate infrastructure was in place.

I hope things improve for you down there.

I feel your pain with all the damage and things going on. I'm in Jersey as you can guess and the damage here is bad, but we get no mainland news coverage. At the moment we are getting sporadic freight ships in with food and supplies on them but they can't dock when the weather is this bad so its hit and miss. At the moment food supplies are ok but starting to run low.

But we get no coverage at all

We have had unprecedented weather recently and lots of the UK are suffering very badly.

Trying to use this situation to blame individuals or make snidey comments about them is just silly. A lot of infrastructure in this country needs a lot of investment. Both major parties are implicated in that, over a long period of time and a major recession doesn't exactly help.

Making the SW out to be some sort of ignored victim is insulting to the other parts of the UK that are badly affected and yes I have family in Devon and I don't live in London.

This is fascinating and well worth a read - simple scientific solutions to many flooding problems.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes

Once Owen Paterson has the bandages off, how do we get him to do something sensible?

my sympathies also to all those suffering from the floods.