MK Council's Progressive Alliance have responded to claims that they voted against additional flood defence measures.
The Milton Keynes Conservative group say Milton Keynes residents will not get any additional flood defence measures, after Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors voted against a Conservative budget amendment to protect homes and businesses prone to floods.
local Conservative councillors proposed a targeted flood defence support package which included funding community flood recovery responders, flood relief kits, automated flood alert signs and strengthen the flood warning system to provide more time to respond.
Conservative Cllr for Stony Stratford, Joseph Hearnshaw, proposed the flood defence package and has been working closely with the local flood action group in Stony Stratford, he said: “It is so disappointing that the Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors made the decision to reject additional flood prevention measures for our residents.
"These residents are extremely anxious of a repeat event and the recent storms we’re experiencing show that this threat is not going away, but will only get worse.”
MKFM reached out to the Progressive Alliance who responded that the MK Conservative group's claims were untrue.
A Progressive Alliance spokesperson told MKFM: “The Progressive Alliance did not vote against additional funding for flooding. The total budget of the Council is over £200m, and within that there is already record levels of funding for flood prevention and mitigation planned.
“The £150,000 the Conservatives proposed as a minor amendment either covered things that were already being funded in the main budget or that had no support from professionals. For instance seeking funding for less than one sandbag per property isn’t really a serious approach to flooding. If they think half a sandbag is a what is required to tackle this issue, then giving people a false sense of reassurance is actually very dangerous and unhelpful.
“The MK Conservatives are sadly as predictable as to be expected. We said on the night the amendments had solely been moved as a political gesture so it could be falsely claimed that we would be voting against flooding funding. Nothing could be further from the truth when the reality is the Progressive Alliance is investing millions in mitigating flooding and the very real impact of climate change, while the MK Conservatives continue with hollow gesture politics that have little substance.”
