A Norfolk MP has denounced a minister’s response to parliamentary questions on controversial Broads surrender proposals as resembling “a dodgy insurance policy”.

Keith Simpson said he was considering organising a select committee-style meeting of the county’s MPs after the “unimpressive and contradictory” letter from environment minister Phil Woolas.

The minister was questioned last month at an adjournment debate in Westminster Hall, initiated by Mr Simpson and attended by most of the county’s MPs, on draft proposals by government conservation advisers Natural England to deal with the consequences of climate change in the northern Broads. (more…)

Parliamentary debate on flood defences in Norfolk by Mr. Keith Simpson MP for Mid Norfolk in Westminster Hall 6 May 2008:

I requested the debate because flood defences in Norfolk are a crucial local issue. It must be seen, of course, against a wider background. We are all conscious today that whatever problems we face, they pale into insignificance compared with the news of what has happened in Burma, where a cyclone has killed a minimum of 15,000 people. We know that many other low-lying parts of the world face appalling threats. I think in particular of the people of Bangladesh.

For many of us, the Norfolk coast is about being at the seaside. I can recall, when I was a child—it may be difficult for some people to believe that I was once a child—of about seven or eight, with glasses and an incipient moustache, being on the beach at Cromer. Later, I was with my son George, perhaps on the beach at Heacham with the tide out, building sandcastles. As you know, Mr. Martlew, however well one builds sandcastles—as a military historian, I did so in depth, using stone and with as much defensive preparation as possible—when the tide comes in, it always sweeps them away. There could be a sense that the flooding that we face from both the sea and on the land is somehow inevitable, and that there is therefore nothing much that we can do about it. I do not believe that that is so.

Read the full transcript of the debate in the Commons Hansard

Norfolk MPs pledged to fight on yesterday after failing to win reassurances or concessions from the government over the mooted surrendering of 25 square miles of the county to the sea.

Environment minister Phil Woolas promised to visit the threatened area between Eccles and Winterton.

But he glossed over an invitation by constituency MP Norman Lamb officially to remove the highly controversial “worst case” sea defences option put forward by Natural England.

And he stressed in the Commons that “it is not the government’s policy to give compensation for the impact of floods and coastal erosion”.

Mr Woolas added that there was an obligation to answer the question of whether compensation should be provided “if damage has been caused by climate change rather than the natural processes of erosion or flooding”. But he did not answer it himself.

Read the full story by Chris Fisher on the Eastern Daily Press website

Widespread anxiety over the future of the Broads will finally be discussed on the national stage next week when the Government will be urged to come clean about its flooding plans for the Norfolk coast.

Mid Norfolk MP Keith Simpson has secured a lengthy parliamentary debate next Tuesday to discuss controversial Natural England proposals which could see parts of the Broads sacrificed to the sea. And last night he urged other Norfolk MPs to attend in a bid to show cross party support and demonstrate a unanimous front against the possible plans.

Read the full article on the EDP website