Stormont should utilise surplus flood funds to enhance community resilience says Chris Hazzard MP
Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard MP has asked the Stormont Executive to utilise surplus flood funding to help enhance the resiliency of local community groups to be able to respond to extreme weather events such as flooding and snow storms.
The South Down MP was speaking following a meeting this week with the Newcastle Community Flooding Resilience Group to discuss the review of flooding in South Down in Autumn 2023.
Mr Hazzard said: “Last autumn Newcastle suffered heavy flooding, and despite the best efforts of local residents and community responders many homes were destroyed. As always, modest funding was made available to home owners towards repairing the damage – but in reality it’s nowhere near enough.
“Given the large-scale devastation in nearby commercial centres such as Downpatrick and Newry, some £15million was made available to local traders in an effort to get shops repaired, and town centres moving once again as the water receded.
“Almost a year later, there is now a surplus of funds remaining which is available to design a number of initiatives to further boost economic recovery, and local Council and the Department for the Economy are discussing how this can best deliver for Downpatrick and Newry.
“However it is vital that local authorities do not ignore the residential impact of flooding, and utilise a portion of these funds to meet the ongoing needs of home owners in the affected areas, such as Newcastle.
Mr Hazzard added: “In the wake of last year’s flooding, concerned residents in Newcastle have organised themselves into a Resilience Group, under the auspices of the Regional Community Resilience Group.
“They have engaged constructively with the ongoing Independent Review of Flooding in an effort to build local capacity in effectively dealing with extreme weather events such as flooding.
“I have now asked the Executive to engage, and support these responders in their endeavours as I’ve no doubt a small investment would go a long way in improving the ability of local volunteers and responders to meet the ever increasing challenge of extreme weather events on the ground as the Climate Crisis intensifies.”
