‘There has to be accountability’ over Greater Manchester’s response to New Year’s Day flooding, according to the mayor, who admitted authorities ‘were taken by surprise’.
Rainfall let to a major incident in the Greater Manchester area
‘Torrential’ rainfall battered Greater Manchester from New Year’s Eve well into January 1, leading to police declaring a ‘major incident’. Officers attended floods in Bolton, Bowdon, Didsbury, Harpurhey, Stalybridge, Stockport and Wigan over the course of New Year’s Day.
Andy Burnham believes 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, and several major roads – including the A555 Airport Relief Road and A56 Lymm Road in Little Bollington – remained closed this morning. No injuries have been recorded as of Thursday (January 2) morning.
Now, the mayor has called for ‘accountability’ after admitting ‘we were all taken by surprise by some degree’.
A lack of severe weather warning
Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday, he said:
I think we do have to have a look back at the warnings.
We were all taken by surprise by some degree. There was no named storm. There was not a particular warning the authorities gave.
I am not saying that to point the finger… but it does seem we get hit by very local torrential rain at potential locations. That might have made it a unique event.
Budgets need to be looked at
Mr Burnham added he believes budgets for clearing drains also needed to be looked at, as well as the resilience of existing flood defences.
The Environment Agency did issue six flood warnings on New Year’s Eve for Greater Manchester, but these did not cover some areas which are now underwater. Four flood alerts were issued at the same time, which do not carry the ‘act now’ message of a warning.
They followed the Met Office delivering a yellow weather warning for rain on the afternoon of December 31.
Only one flood warning remains in place currently, in Wigan. A new yellow weather warning, for ice, has been issued covering Greater Manchester from 5pm on Thursday to 10am on Friday (January 3).
An LDRS article by Ethan Davies.
Video footage of one of the worst affected areas can be seen here:
