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TS/CT
Leaders Office
Councillor Tim Swift
01422 392754
Councillor.TSwift@calderdale.gov.uk
9 August 2016

Town Hall
Halifax
HX1 1UJ

The Rt Hon Teresa May MP

Prime Minister
The Prime Ministers Office
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister
National Flood Resilience Review
Firstly, may we offer our congratulations to you on your appointment as Prime Minister.
As you are aware, Storms Desmond and Eva during December 2015 caused widespread
devastation to communities across the north of England. Large parts of Cumbria were under water
for many weeks whilst West Yorkshire was the area worst hit by Storm Eva. The centre of Leeds
and surrounding communities were inundated and the valley community of Calderdale suffered the
largest number of properties flooded of any other single Borough in the UK.
As the two local authority areas worst hit, and given the increased frequency of such flooding (4
major flooding events in 4 years), we are keen to understand the current status of the National
Flood Resilience Review. This review was critical to understanding how we can better protect our
communities and businesses from future flooding and increasingly extreme weather events.
Each of the distinct strands in the Resilience Review remains critical to the Leeds City Region, and
represents a distinct contribution to safeguarding our communities.

Updating our climate modelling as a steep sided valley community Calderdale in particular
needs to understand how the national level modelling will interface with the local Catchment
Plan work, and with communities in Leeds and Calderdale experiencing unprecedented high
water levels we must revisit what we may need to expect from future extreme weather.

Stress-testing the nations resilience to flood risk the emergency services in West
Yorkshire did a great job but it was clear that there was a significant (10 hour) delay to
declaring a major incident which was compounded by loss of emergency service telephony.

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The flooding around central Leeds also illustrated the short-sightedness of the decision in 2011
by DEFRA to not fund the full River Aire Flood Alleviation Scheme, leaving areas of the city
critically exposed.
Resilience of our important infrastructure like electricity substations The loss of power
to communities lasted weeks reflecting the severity of the loss of Leeds Kirkstall C National
Grid Substation (133KV), plus the loss of ten Calderdale substations. Leeds lost Linton Bridge
and Calderdale lost 6 bridges bringing to over 40 the number of bridge collapses over the last
decade. The loss of fibre optics to the Lloyds Banking Groups national data centre was
narrowly averted.
Temporary defences were brought in from National Military and Civilian resources but this
took too long and greater resilience and capacity needs to be held across the Government
family. The speed of flooding makes a strong case for some of these to be situated more
locally to high risk areas.
Future investment strategy the short term immediate allocation of funding to Calderdale
and Leeds was crucial but as the full picture has become clear the funding required is
considerable. The Leeds City Region LEP submission to round three of the Local Growth Deal
seeks to protect current businesses and unlock further growth but we are keen to develop and
share best practice on how the UK can live with flooding by creating resilient communities.

Across the Leeds City Region we are working with DfT, DCLG and the Environment Agency but the
National Resilience Review will provide valuable context as to how those Departments can better
align to support local communities in flood affected areas. We are working to repair failed assets
but it is clear that we must continue to work to make our communities and businesses more
resilient through new approaches to water management and resilient infrastructure as we strive to
create new and different approaches to living with the forces of nature.
We are therefore writing to urge that work continues on completing the national flood resilience
review, and that the experience and concern of Leeds, Calderdale and other West Yorkshire
communities is fully reflected in that work. Should you be in a position to visit West Yorkshire in the
near future, we would welcome the opportunity to share our experiences with you on the
devastation suffered by our local communities, the work that is already underway to help them
recover, and the long-term support we need to secure their safety and prosperity in the future.
Yours sincerely

Councillor Tim Swift

Leader of the Council

Councillor Judith Blake

Leader of Leeds City Council