The leader of Stockport Council has said he thinks Stockport may have received government aid after last year's New Year's floods if it were located in the South. 

Councillor Mark Roberts made the comment in a Cabinet meeting last night (10 February), in which councillors approved an investigation into severe flooding in Stockport last January. 

The 24-hour deluge was declared a major incident, with hundreds of people evacuated from their homes as roads became submerged across the borough. 

During extreme weather events, the government can activate a Flood Recovery Framework scheme, which provides grants to households and businesses impacted by flooding. 

However, despite the floods breaking numerous local records, the government did not activate emergency funding to provide relief for victims – even as Stockport Council sent an open letter to demand why. 

A Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said the government would be investing £2.4bn to provide better flood defences across the country, but did not mention relief for Stockport. 

"It is outrageous that the government didn't enact the Flood Recovery Framework," Cllr Roberts said yesterday. 

"That point was made very eloquently by Cllr Julian in a letter to the minister, which was frankly just dismissed. 

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"It's fair to say that I am very clear that, had Stockport been somewhere in the South, the government would have probably done something very different when it comes to whether or not to enact the Flood Recovery Framework. It's not okay, our residents need help, and we need the government to give us the support we need to help those residents when things go wrong when we have large flooding incidents like we did. 

"It is another example of where national government is way too focused on London and the South, and yet again, those of us who are up here in the north are begging for scraps from them." 

The 69-page Flood Investigation Report was released in late January, and has been separately reviewed by local area committees across the borough before arriving at yesterday's cabinet meeting for final approval. 

The investigation was carried out by Stockport Council and an independent body, and identifies the causes, strengths, and errors in last year's flood response, as well as action plans going forward. 

It found the overall cause of flooding to be extreme rainfall that overwhelmed local areas' drainage systems, causing severe overflows that rushed to other areas – largely through roads, rivers and railway lines. 

In Portwood, which received national attention after more than 400 Meadow Mill residents were evacuated from their flats, an overflow in the River Tame in Reddish Vale saw floodwater cascade down the Mersey as drains failed to cope. 

Meanwhile in other areas, such as Chorlton Brook, decades of manually altering river paths saw natural defences fail alongside manual ones, leading to 30 homes being flooded overnight. 

The investigation also found some flood warnings and alerts from the Environment Agency were issued too late for residents to take appropriate action, and that not all areas affected by the floods were included in their warning areas. 

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It also warned that continued climate change will see floods become more common in Stockport. 

It has now recommended that Stockport Council should focus less on river drainage and more on natural flood defence measures, which would allow water to enter the ground rather than be forced downstream. To do this, it encouraged letting rivers evolve naturally, and be better preserved and protected. 

Even without the grant, Stockport Council said it is now working to minimise risks going forward, though is urging households and businesses to invest in their own defences. 

United Utilities is also working to upgrade sewers and rainwater management systems across Stockport, and residents have been urged to consider adding their own flood defence measures. 

"We have been working closely with the Mayor of Greater Manchester around flood warnings work after the challenges of what happened on New Year's Day," Cllr Roberts said. 

 "I'm really grateful for the work that's gone into this [report]. With climate change, the incidence of flooding and other events like this are only likely to increase without the government actually putting their hand in their pocket and giving us the means to actually be able to tackle some of these flooding issues." 

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