"Astonishing complacency": Labour say better drain clearing would have made no difference during New Year floods

TLD

31 Jan 2025

Trafford’s Liberal Democrat group hit out at the ruling Labour Party during a meeting of Trafford Council this week (29 Jan) over claims made by several Labour members that better drain clearance would have made no difference to the New Year's Day floods.

At the meeting, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader councillor Will Frass said, "Drainage and leaf clearance has been a complete disgrace - stop any resident in the street and they will agree. But whoever is marking AMEY's homework is on a completely different planet."

"Labour are giving Amey top marks for drain clearance month after month!"

Trafford Liberal Democrats set out a proposal to put more drain-clearing crews on the streets at weekends to make the best use of the equipment the Council has - currently expensive gully-clearing machines sit idle many weekends.

But Labour members dismissed the idea that better drain maintenance plays a role in helping to protect residents from flash flooding and defended the performance of council contractor AMEY - who are responsible for drains and leaf clearance. The Liberal Democrat plan was voted down by the Labour Group.

Speaking after the vote, councillor Frass said, "This is astonishing complacency from Labour. In many places a clear drain could have stopped water crossing the threshold of people's homes. Clearing drains would not have completely stopped the worst flooding in decades, but you can't tell me it wouldn't have made a big difference."

"Residents hit by New Year's Day floods told us that climate change is only going to make flooding worse. So it was pathetic to see the only contribution the Conservatives brought to the table was to rule out any reference to climate change."

One Trafford's Annual Performance Report Reference to AMEY's KPIs as approved by Trafford Council is shown in this document. KPI 35 relates to the percentage of gullies cleared in accordance with agreed frequency and shows 100% completion across the board

Download

View

This website uses cookies

Like most websites, this site uses cookies. Some are required to make it work, while others are used for statistical or marketing purposes. If you choose not to allow cookies some features may not be available, such as content from other websites. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information.

Essential Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the website to function properly.

Analytics Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

Marketing Marketing cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalized advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.