Cameron confronted by angry resident in Todmorden

Kathleen Simpson confronts David Cameron Kathleen Simpson confronts David Cameron

PRIME Minister David Cameron was confronted by an angry resident as he toured flood-hit areas of Todmorden yesterday.

On leaving a meeting with council officials and emergency services workers, Mr Cameron faced a number of questions about the floods from Kathleen Simpson.

Earlier Mr Cameron said: “One’s sympathy just goes out to people who had their homes flooded and have seen so many treasured possessions destroyed.

“But what you see is an incredibly strong community come together with real purpose to help each other out.”

An online campaign has been launched to aid flood victims, and the Community Foundation for Calderdale has collected almost £2,000.

The PM also visited Sarah-Jayne Robins, who was trapped upstairs at her home for 12 hours by last Friday’s floods.

Several locations from Cornholme to Walsden, and town centre shops, were affected by the rising waters.

Todmorden was devastated by major flooding in 2000 and the Environment Agency is currently partway through a £30million waterways defence project.

Comments(6)

just_me_again says...
9:27am Fri 29 Jun 12

why was she angry at him? has he done something wrong (in relation to the floods)? it doesn't tell us what she said.

commonsenseplease says...
11:40am Fri 29 Jun 12

Urm... Lancashire Telegraph would be helpful to know what she actually said...?

HelmshoreBoy says...
1:27pm Fri 29 Jun 12

Despite all his failings, it wasn't Cameroon's fault. King Canute tries to keep the tide back and failed!

mavrick says...
3:34pm Fri 29 Jun 12

As much as I disagree with the Tories I can,t blame cameron for the weather, it must be climate change get some more money out of peoples pockets to cure it. I have to say I did notice in our area the amount of blocked drains, I remember when the council used to come round at least once per month with a gulley wagon, But I can't remember the last time I saw one being used around our way, another invisible cut in public service. The insurance companies will have a field day telling us we live in a flood zone so up go the premiums. some people still think I am cynical.

Kathleen Simpson says...
10:35am Fri 6 Jul 12

I am the woman who confronted David Cameron - here is what I had to complain about

http://www.todmorden
news.co.uk/news/loca
l/much-we-can-learn-
from-says-kathleen-w
ho-buttonholed-pm-1-
4708956

David Cameron assured me that our MP Craig Whittaker would contact me which hasn't happened.

The drains are blocked the river beds are full of debris including chunks of brick and stone walls. The capacity of the waterways and drainage systems are seriously decreased. Reduced containment + increased rainfall = overflow. There are multi-million pound projects to manage flooding but the effectiveness of this work and the financial costs are of little use if the basic systems are neglected.

I rang the emergency services as a member of the household 80 yrs old and disabled on the ground floor as the water was coming into the house and the power had gone off - no lights hetaing etc. I was told that I should ring Calderdale Council who said it wasnt their problem and I should ring the Water Authority, who also said it wasnt their problem and that I should
ring the emergency services. As each of these put me on hold for long periods the series of calls took approx 1 hour. by this time the ground floor was over two feet deep in water.

Also the emergency numbers are 0845 which meant that my mobile credit ran out and I had to try to add credit in the dark, then resume the calls (back at the start of the queue presumably) also my battery was running low.

I had tried to get sandbags which were in high demand, however I was told that the council had a supply locked up. I asked the council to supply some and was told that They " do not distribute sandbags to individuals" , yet after the floods they did.

I do not expect David Cameron to stop the rain but as there are many areas currently affected by floods in the UK the government should address the issues of poor maintenance of drains and waterways and the emergency systems which send people round endless circles from pillar to post in an emergency situation.

Kathleen Simpson

2 for 5p says...
10:42pm Sun 8 Jul 12

At least all the people of todmorden had the sense to take out contents insurance.

Oh what's that I hear in the background it sounds like someone laughing.

click2find

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