THE Green Party in south Shropshire has accused the Government of being tardy in is response to flooding and climate change that they claim is a major cause.

They believe that the measures being taken to mitigate flooding are totally inadequate when it comes to avoiding a repetition of the catastrophic damage that has recently been experienced in Cumbria and Yorkshire.

Greens believe that recent changes in climate and weather systems call for a major reappraisal of our current management of upland areas including the need to reassess all the historical and current evidence and resolve to engage local people in arriving at appropriate strategies

“The Green Party is very disappointed to see that the leader of the Conservative Party has still not understood the gravity of the situation in which his Government’s response to the present stormy weather and flooding events fails to address the fundamental causes, which include insufficient tree cover, lack of stream-slowing measures, the maintenance of excessive numbers of livestock in many upper watershed areas and inappropriate management of downstream areas,” said Dr David Gibbon, the Green party spokesperson on Food, Farming and Environmental matters in south Shropshire.

“Recent initiatives by partnerships between local councils, environmental agencies, farmers and foresters show that effective measures can be developed at low cost to effect a significant reduction in water run-off from upland areas.“