Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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Norman Baker,
23 East Street,
Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
Tel: (01273) 480281.
Fax: (01273) 480287.
Email: info
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Local MP battles with Treasury over Lewes flood defences
Local Lib Dem MP, Norman Baker, is demanding a meeting with a Treasury Minister to put the case for more money to be allocated to flood defence works and to hand in thousands of letters to the Chancellor from local people asking for more funding for flood defences in Lewes.
At the moment the Treasury is trying persuade the local MP to meet instead with a Minister from the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs as an alternative but Norman is determined to secure a meeting with Treasury Minister, John Healey, in order to push for more funding for flood defences rather than to discuss how best to spend the money already allocated. An answer of one of Mr Baker’s recent parliamentary questions revealed that there have been no discussions between DEFRA and the Treasury about the level of funding for flood defences since 2004.
Mr Baker’s Early Day Motion calling on the Treasury to respond to a predicted shortfall of £700 million for flood defences over the next 10 years has now received cross-party support from 63 MPs.
Commenting on the situation, Norman Baker says:
"Over two thousand people have sent me their letters addressed to the Chancellor. The understand it is the size of the cake that is the problem, not the division of it.
"In 2000 after the terrible floods the government said that they had had a wake-up call. Yet years on we still have huge swathes of Lewes unprotected. This is simply not good enough. It is clear that the Treasury is simply not allocating sufficient resources to this area. If the Chancellor can find £6bn for a war in Iraq he can surely find £700m for proper flood defences for people in the UK. This is why I am determined to get a meeting with the Treasury to discuss the matter with the MInister."