Chaos Caused by Flooding

It was an earlier than usual start for me today as I was invited to appear on the BBC Essex Breakfast Show this morning at 06:22 as flooding caused travel chaos across the county yesterday following sustained heavy rainfall on Monday night.

I was asked for my views on the disruption to Southend residents after the Fairglen Interchange was flooded and whether something needed to be done as this area has been susceptible to flooding for around 40 years following any sustained heavy rainfall.

I fully understand the frustrations that commuters in and out of Southend faced yesterday, as I had travelled less than a mile in around an hour and half trying to get to work in Barking. I heard some horror stories that some journey's were to East London were taking around four to five hours. Fortunately, I have the ability to work from home so I gave up on my journey and headed home so my day wasn't as unproductive as it could have been.

Whilst it would have been easy to beat Essex County Council with a big stick accusing them of 'not doing enough' at Fairglen I wanted to use the opportunity this morning to act as reminder of the devastation to peoples homes, travel disruption, impact on business and the loss of life that flooding has brought to many parts of the country in the past week and the importance of local and national government doing all that it can to mitigate the risks of flooding and boosting flood defences where required.

Whilst Southend isn't immune to flooding following heavy rainfall, Southend and parts of my ward in West Shoebury are very much at risk to coastal flooding and we need to do all that we can to maintain our flood defences.

Whilst I accept that not everyone will be supportive of the preferred option for improved flood defences at Shoebury Common, I'm not sure any scheme will have 100% support, what I am sure most will be encouraged by is the issue of flooding is being taken seriously at Shoebury Common in West Shoebury in principle and that money is willing to be invested on improved defences to protect peoples homes, lives and businesses.