I have been intimately aware of the appalling impact that flooding has on our communities since the floods in 2007 and so completely understand the despair that people who live daily with the fear of floods experience.

However, it is important to me that flood victims know both what I am campaigning for and what has already been delivered to protect their properties.

A key reason why the floods that hit on new year’s day and then again at the weekend did not lead to homes being flooded here was because of flood alleviation measures that we have already put in place for the Rover Rother at the Avenue Flood Storage Area. The 245,000 cubic metre storage facility worked as it should have done and prevented homes being flooded when the river levels peaked, these measures, which I fought to secure for the area in my first term as MP, and cost an 8 figure sum have prevented homes getting flooded today. If you look around the county and the country, there has been widespread flooding due to the melting snow and heavy rainfall.

Temporary measures had already been put in place alongside the bridge at River View, and the Environment Agency will be completing permanent work to install an upstream flood wall with a return to it to stop water passage past it to help protect Hawthorne St, Sherwood St, Bridge Street and River View. I held a meeting with the Environment Agency and residents on Sherwood Street last year and this has led to further measures at the rear of the properties to reduce the water rising up into the gardens there.

Following the publication of the Section 19 investigation into the Storm Babet flooding event, Derbyshire County Council is looking to identify potential sites for flood storage within the Holme Brook Catchment, including at Linacre Reservoir, to slow the flow of Holme Brook and are exploring the feasibility of removing the bridge at Crow Lane near Tapton terrace. I am also pursuing the Environment Agency to consider an updated dredging assessment for the Rother near Tapton Terrace.

I will be meeting with the Environment Agency on Friday at the Avenue Flood Reservoir to discuss the ongoing situation and whether there are any operational improvements that can be undertaken to improve its effectiveness.

The situation at Hornsbridge Roundabout also needs addressing, though it is better that the road should flood than in to residential properties. Yorkshire Water is investigating the feasibility of a storage measure at Horns Bridge to be introduced during the next asset maintenance programme period. Yorkshire Water has also announced they are investing over £5m in three storm overflows in and around Chesterfield to reduce the number of storm water charges into Calow Brook, the river Hipper and the river Rother. These overflows will hold almost 600,000 litres of wastewater during periods of heavy or prolonged rainfall, before returning it to the network for full treatment once the rainfall event has passed. I recently visited the Somersall Park storm overflow work which will soon be completed.

I now wish to secure a flood alleviation scheme to reduce the risk of flooding to properties on the River Hipper in Chesterfield, which is not protected by a substantial scheme like the Avenue Storage on the River Rother.  I have already had meetings with Defra and the Environment Agency on the potential business case for a scheme, but there are funding and other issues that need to be resolved.

I don’t pretend that we can ever be certain that any measures will provide complete protection from weather events like Storm Babet, but I can assure all my constituents that flood prevention is my number one priority, and that we have already delivered improvements as well as working to identify new ones. I have arranged for the Floods Minster, Emma Hardy MP, to visit Chesterfield soon to discuss in detail what is needed to reduce the risk of flooding and to protect houses and businesses.

As Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, I am also heading a review in Parliament into the Government’s plans for flood alleviation, which is taking evidence now and will report before the summer.”