‘Act now to help our communities become more resilient as the Calder Valley will flood again, thanks to changing weather patterns, climate change and changes in land management.   That’s the message within the Calderdale Flood Commission’s final report into the causes, impact and response to the unprecedented flooding which hit the Calder Valley on Boxing Day 2015. Independent Chair of the Flood Commission, and Chief Executive of the National Flood Forum, Paul Cobbing said:

“We all know that the Calder Valley is particularly vulnerable to flooding; but, due to climate change, the threat of more severe and more frequent flood events is increasing. “We have reached a cross roads in our approach to tackling this problem.  We believe the solutions we implement today must not just tackle risk as it exists now; they must also take into account the increasing year-on-year risk.

“By working together, we need to increase the resilience of communities throughout the valleys, so that the risk of flooding reduces year on year. But we also need to recognise that flooding will happen again and together, we must reduce the devastation to communities which followed in the wake of Storm Eva and help people recover more quickly.

“As part of this we must lead by example, and we can do this not just by ensuring that flood risk management measures will better protect our communities now and in the future, but also by reducing our own impact on the environment and reducing our own carbon emissions.

The Flood Commission also visited Westminster, meeting Rory Stewart MP, a Minister from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and also government officials from both Defra and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

The full report of the Calderdale Flood Commission can be viewed at www.calderdale.gov.uk.