Flood Victim Confronts Cameron

Reading reviews of the year I came across this story. A flood victim Kathleen Simpson confronted Davis Cameron as she had been given the runaround while her house was inundated with water. Instead of saving her posessions she was on the phone being passed from one agency to another. Meanwhile the drains are blocked and the river contains debry. Will Cameron do anything about this?


"I am the woman who confronted David Cameron - here is what I had to complain about

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"David Cameron assured me that our MP Craig Whittaker would contact me which hasn't happened.

The drains are blocked the river beds are full of debris including chunks of brick and stone walls. The capacity of the waterways and drainage systems are seriously decreased. Reduced containment + increased rainfall = overflow. There are multi-million pound projects to manage flooding but the effectiveness of this work and the financial costs are of little use if the basic systems are neglected.

I rang the emergency services as a member of the household 80 yrs old and disabled on the ground floor as the water was coming into the house and the power had gone off - no lights hetaing etc. I was told that I should ring Calderdale Council who said it wasnt their problem and I should ring the Water Authority, who also said it wasnt their problem and that I should ring the emergency services. As each of these put me on hold for long periods the series of calls took approx 1 hour. by this time the ground floor was over two feet deep in water.

Also the emergency numbers are 0845 which meant that my mobile credit ran out and I had to try to add credit in the dark, then resume the calls (back at the start of the queue presumably) also my battery was running low.

I had tried to get sandbags which were in high demand, however I was told that the council had a supply locked up. I asked the council to supply some and was told that They " do not distribute sandbags to individuals" , yet after the floods they did.

I do not expect David Cameron to stop the rain but as there are many areas currently affected by floods in the UK the government should address the issues of poor maintenance of drains and waterways and the emergency systems which send people round endless circles from pillar to post in an emergency situation.

Kathleen Simpson"


She said this in a comment at http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/todmorden/9789742.Cameron_confronted_by_angry_resident_in_Todmorden/