Residents in the Monktonmead area of Ryde have written to local MP Joe Robertson urging him to press the Environment Agency for answers over an investigation into the October 2023 flooding that has yet to be published 19 months on.
On 25th October 2023, around 150 homes in Moktonmead were flooded despite a £5million flood defence scheme completed in 2019. Only 2 of 5 critical flood defence boards were in place at Simeon Recreation Ground when heavy rainfall struck. The Environment Agency’s contractors were deployed elsewhere and were unable to return due to impassable roads, leaving defences partially inactive when they were needed most.
An initial report was published by the Environment Agency in November 2023, promising a more detailed review to determine whether full deployment of defences could have prevented homes from flooding. Residents say repeated deadlines have been missed, and they still have no clear answers about whether different actions could have protected their properties.
Martin Finch, on behalf of the Ryde Monktonmead Area Flood Group, says many affected homeowners are unable to get flood insurance and face ongoing uncertainty about future risk. He has now called on Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson to submit a parliamentary question demanding an update on the delayed review and asking what steps are being taken to improve the Environment Agency’s transparency and accountability in its flood investigations.
Martin says:
“As a public body funded by taxpayers, the Environment Agency should be held to basic standards of transparency and accountability.
“Our community has suffered significant property damage and displacement, yet we cannot even obtain clear answers about whether different Environment Agency actions could have prevented this suffering. This is completely unacceptable”.
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Mr Finch’s letter highlights recent criticism raised in Parliament about the Environment Agency’s wider lack of transparency. In a Westminster Hall debate on 4th June, Steve Barclay MP, former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, described the Agency as showing ‘a remarkable lack of transparency or accountability to Ministers or Members of Parliament’ and said more ministerial directions had to be issued in 6 months than in the previous 7 years combined.
The Ryde group says the combination of operational failures during the flood and the continued lack of answers has undermined local confidence in the Agency’s ability to protect the community from future flooding.
