Time To Act Is Now

11.03.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 6th May 2005

Gipton and Harehills Cllrs Javaid Akhtar and Alan Taylor have called for an urgent meeting in order to address the issue of flooding in Wykebeck Valley Road area of East Leeds.

Cllr Akhtar and Cllr Taylor have requested a meeting with representatives from Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Water, local residents and business community groups in a bid to find out the real causes behind the repeat flooding. This comes hot on the heels of Cllr Akhtar raising concerns in April's Full Council Meeting about the causes of the flooding and why Yorkshire Water's findings on the first bout of flooding back in August 2004 had not then been received.

To date a joint report from Leeds City Council and Yorkshire Water on the August floods has been submitted with the exception of a report on Wykebeck Valley Road, this report was commissioned separately by Yorkshire Water and has yet to be included.

Cllr Javaid Akhtar (Lib Dem, Gipton and Harehills) said, "This latest

bout of flooding has once again devastated the residents in and around the Wykebeck Valley Road area of Gipton. Local residents demand answers as to why this has happened once again.

Leeds City Council and the Emergency Services have worked hard to alleviate the problems caused by the flooding, but we must tackle the real causes so that we don't have to clean up time after time"

Cllr Alan Taylor (Lib Dem, Gipton and Harehills) added, "Now is the

time for action. We cannot simply sit back and wait for another downpour, this flooding has had far reaching consequences to our children's education through the enforced closure of St Nicholas Primary School as well as the damage to homes.

We need an urgent meeting between residents, Leeds City Council and Yorkshire Water. In the meantime Yorkshire Water should

immediately release the findings of its own enquires into the cause of the flooding last year. If they have nothing to hide then they have no reason not to release the full report."

1. The storm during the evening of 12th August 2004 caused the worst flooding to affect Leeds for many decades in terms of the number of residential properties that experienced internal inundation. It is estimated that up to 240 houses were flooded internally to some degree and that scores were rendered uninhabitable in the short term.

2. The Council's Executive Board commissioned a report on the August floods to be submitted on the 9th March 2005. This report is currently available on the Council's website

3. The joint LCC and YW report on the August floods is also

available on the Leeds City Council website. Chapter 4 on the causes of flooding in the Wykebeck Valley Road area is currently outstanding.