Get these stupid maps changed!

Once again, Boston is at the top of a list for all the wrong reasons – ones which could have a serious impact on our local development and economy.
The list has been compiled by the Association of British Insurers - naming areas with the highest risk of flooding in England and Wales where residents may struggle to insure their homes when a deal with the government runs out next year.
Boston and Skegness – presumably as a constituency – heads the list with 7,550 homes facing significant risk.
And meanwhile, parliament’s Public Accounts Committee of MPs has raised concerns about what funds are available to maintain flood defences.
The ABI has repeated its warning that its agreement which obliges insurers to provide cover for high-risk properties while the government continues to improve flood defences, ends in June 2013.
The Public Accounts Committee urged the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to secure a new agreement urgently, and also warned that there is great uncertainty about whether there is enough money to improve flood defences and protection in the long-term - as well as who pays for it.
The committee chairman, Margaret Hodge, says: "Flood protection is a national priority. Yet it is unclear where the buck stops and who is ultimately responsible for managing the risk of flooding."
It’s not that long ago that the Boston 200 exhibition marked the 200th anniversary of the last time the borough suffered significant flooding.
It made the point that as a result of the 1810 floods, a huge amount of engineering work was done to reduce future risk – including building some 40 pumping stations.
Publicity from Boston Borough Council at the time said: “All this work helps to keep the area safe from flooding today. The big test came in 1953 when sections of the east coast of England were devastated by a huge storm and many lives lost. Boston borough however was largely unaffected due to all the flood protection measures put in place since 1810.”
If that is so, then why do we head the list of areas at risk from flooding?
One answer could be that the Environment Agency maps depicting areas at risk are drawn up as if there were no flood defences at all.
This bizarre assessment is apparently the one preferred by the government – and we are certain that the insurers like it as well … as it lets them bump up premiums.
Apparently the reason is that the defences themselves could be overwhelmed – which begs a host of new questions.
We know of many people in Boston who are unable to get flood insurance – and this is something which must also act as a serious disincentive both to business and to people thinking of setting up home in the borough.



Now you see Boston - now you don't ... according to the EA

Who can say how many companies thinking of relocating took one look at the EA maps and decided to think again?
Next on the agenda to keep Boston safe is the Haven Barrier – a £50 million project which has already slipped down the timescale, even though the Environment Agency has just announced a survey of the ground below the river bed.
We have attended most of the public meetings about this project – and one thing that we have noticed is that confidence about funding does not now seem as positive as once it was.
Successive leaders of Boston Borough Council have made noises about continuing to enhance flood protection for the borough.
But we are less than happy with the latest comments attributed to our current leader, Peter Bedford, in yesterday’s local “newspapers.”
He is quoted as saying: “This area has some of the best flood defences in the country, and the worst-case scenario flood risk maps used by the insurance industry do not reflect reality.”
Is that it?
He urges people seeking insurance to use local brokers “who were aware of the flooding risk in the area.”
We tried that, Councillor Bedford – and the brokers we thought would be the most locally aware and helpful – NFU Mutual – refused to even quote for the postcode we gave them.
It’s not enough to recite parrot-fashion that Boston hasn’t flooded for 200 years, and isn’t likely to – or to moan about the criteria used to assess risk.
In light of the latest developments, if we are claiming that Boston is not  under threat from flooding, the time is long overdue for approaches to be made to insurers and the Environment Agency by the council and others to get the authorities to acknowledge that Boston is not the flood risk area that they claim it is.
This is something that is of crucial importance to the borough and its future, and we need something positive and robust from the powers that be to address it, - not just vague murmurings.

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