Rotherham Council's flood clean-up operation in Catcliffe

The Star, Sheffield

Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and strategy director Paul Woodcock speak about the Catcliffe clean-up operation after flooding caused by Storm Babet.

Transcript

00:00 So we'll be making provision for homes over the coming days.

00:03 There's a big cleanup to be done.

00:05 You've seen there's a lot of people needing to move

00:07 a lot of stuff out of their homes, sadly.

00:09 At the moment, we still have some people

00:11 in the council's emergency accommodation people

00:14 that we put up overnight,

00:15 one or two people in our care homes as well.

00:18 So we'll be reaching out to people over the coming days,

00:20 continuing to provide that support.

00:22 But of course, a lot of people need to work

00:23 with their own insurers as well,

00:25 making their own arrangements.

00:27 We can help with that,

00:27 but they have to make their own arrangements as well.

00:31 - And what's the sort of general feel

00:33 in the community at the moment?

00:34 - I think people are really fed up.

00:36 Fed up, sad, angry about what's happened,

00:39 and completely understandably.

00:41 This is a community that's been through

00:42 really difficult times,

00:44 including difficult flooding in the past.

00:46 It's quite right that people are angry and upset about that.

00:48 I mean, it's heartbreaking.

00:49 It's heartbreaking, really.

00:51 Very difficult situation.

00:52 Saturday, people clearly needing emergency support.

00:56 And that turned into anger

00:58 as people have got into more difficult situations

01:00 as times passed.

01:01 - We've got over 40 staff here from the council

01:03 working on the cleanup,

01:04 in terms of getting rid of the debris,

01:06 in terms of making sure that the roads are swept and cleaned,

01:10 and ensuring that we can get it back

01:12 so that people can come back

01:14 and access their properties as soon as they can.

01:17 So we distributed, we did over 2,500 sandbags,

01:22 plus another 1,700 that we were working in partnership with

01:26 town parish councils and volunteers across the borough.

01:29 In places like Lorton Common,

01:32 we built a complete barrier there

01:35 to protect some residential properties there.

01:37 So we did, I think it was over 20,000 tons of sand.

Category

Transcript

Recommended