Reading a report about children this morning, preparing for an Assembly at a primary school today (previously postponed on the day of Storm Ciaran), and how we must “increase their ability to make informed decisions” – same goes for adults, businesspeople – everyone.
Yesterday I spent 4 hours in a flood meeting in Devon, in my role on South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee where, as 1 woman on a committee of 17 (perhaps you’d like to join?), we battled through the 200+ pages of business and how the Environment Agency spend their money in a nutshell. It’s NOT easy, and it takes 4 hours, every 3 months! However, we planned a lot and there was a lot of support for OUR next plans = My message to you, Rudi, is you need to look after yourself, get yourself educated “Stop your messing around, Better think of your future.”
Following my return, in the evening Daniel & I spent 2 hours at the very brilliant Portreath Flood meeting! Portreath Parish Council and Steph & Donna from the Climate Action Group welcomed the (drum roll) very BRILLIANT Paul Minshull & Claire Below from Cornwall Council to talk about their roles, responsibilities and property flood resilience measures you could fit to your house to help yourself (as demonstrated in our recent Tackling Climate Change project, funded by Cornwall Council and the Shared Prosperity Fund, and we aim to do more, PM for an invite). Simon Jeffery from the EA then gave a staggering insight into the reasons Portreath is at risk, and took a look at the whole catchment contributing to that – and very kindly referred to our great natural flood management work in a local catchment (have a listen to the BBC interview with a coffee). Members of the Council attended our TCC Project Climate event and to follow with these colleagues, was the icing on the cake! Furthermore following the brilliant work we did at Cornwall Community Flood Forum ensuring there was a flood plan and flood wardens trained, “being” prepared by having an emergency plan in Portreath, that fortunately that was in place just before their significant event in 2017 – makes this community extremely innovative and taking the best actions!
So, the call? After much news about the EA not being able to protect as many people as they hoped, Govts struggling with emissions targets (?), the best thing you can do Rudi? Is work through this YOURSELF, don’t wait for government, do both sides please, even if you are on a hill (people on hills flood too as home drains become overwhelmed with the amount that falls, seeping into places you don’t even realise e.g. airbricks – fill this form out now to be ready and if you are on holiday you can tell someone where it is for all the details). If you are a community group and would like a FREE talk, get in touch and we can give these forms out to your community for FREE, like we did last night. If you are a business or an organisation, check out this way to get going! After which, you will become STRONG and apply your local knowledge and understand the myriad of opportunities MANY colleagues have on offer for YOU!
Then finally – in the evening ITV put on After the Flood! Brilliant, while hard and a different kind of flood to the little ones that can make such a difference to your wellbeing too, it truly helps people see – being prepared is a really important thing.
