Gloucestershire chief constable Dr Tim Brain has criticised

the county's utility giants for not installing permanent

protection at their sites in the intervening 12 months since

last summer's disastrous flooding crisis.

In an interview with the Western Daily Press, Dr Brain said

he felt permanent flood barriers should have been installed by

now at Walham electricity substation in Gloucester and at Mythe

Water Treatment Works in Tewkesbury.

Large areas of the county went without water for 14 days

last summer after Mythe came under threat and disaster at

Walham was only averted by a matter of inches as police,

firefighters and the armed forces battled to secure the site as

water rose around the perimeter.

The comments from Dr Brain, who was awarded an OBE for his

force's work during last July's deluge, echo those of

Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson in October last year.

Discussing Mythe, Mr Robertson said: “I understand they

(Severn Trent Water) had to move very quickly and get a barrier

installed but now that the floods have passed they need to look

quickly at erecting a permanent barrier to protect the

residents of the county against such a catastrophe happening

again.

“They should not be talking about years down the line, they

should be talking about doing it now.”

Meanwhile, Dr Brain said: “I think there are some

organisations that could have done more in the intervening 12

months.

“Gold Command installed a temporary barrier at Mythe to give

ourselves breathing space and there was a similar situation at

Walham.

“The idea was that they would be there for the next few

months. I would think that a more permanent, more substantial

barrier would not be an unreasonable thing to put in place.

“However, I am a police officer and those decisions are down

to the Environment Agency, Severn Trent and the National

Grid.”

Dr Brain said he was delighted with his force's performance

during the crisis last July. He said: “I was extremely pleased

with how we reacted, it was an exemplary response given that we

had one month's worth of rain in 16 hours.

“We reacted very early on when it was obvious the rain was

not going to stop. By 6pm on the Friday, Gold Command was

meeting and gathering all the agencies together.

“Under the Civil Contingency Act, we took control of

coordinating the agencies involved. In general, but not in

every civil emergency, the police will take the leading

role.

“The reason this county does a good job is because it takes

its emergency planning very seriously and that is something to

be very proud of.

“I have a first rate team of emergency planners, the

district council have tried and tested food watch schemes and

the fire service, run by the county council, have superb

equipment.

“We also have the infrastructure in place with the police

headquarters and tri-service headquarters in the same place. It

means we can very quickly turn it into a nerve centre to

control a large scale emergency.

“Waterwells is very unlikely to be flooded, and a lot of

strength was built into the site to ensure it is not

compromised, but if it is we have fallback facilities in

place.

Dr Brain said that the expert preparation in the county

meant that it was not a case of lessons learned but more

experience gained. “In terms of lessons learned, as far as the

police are concerned we call it 'benefits of experience'

because we were very well prepared and did the job to the best

of our ability,” he said.

“We had the structure, systems and leadership in place to

deal with an emergency and we didn't let the people of

Gloucestershire down.

“The second benefit of experience was instigating Gold

Command at a very early stage because it got us on the front

foot.

“The third benefit of experience is that counties are very

good at dealing with emergencies. We are big enough to be

strategic but small enough to know what is going on.

For example with Severn Trent, who did not know the area, we

were able to explain to them what was going on. That is why I

don't think regionalisation is a good idea.” But Dr Brain does

think the Government urgently needs to look at protecting the

country as a whole.

He said: “If the electricity had failed, we would have

needed to have had emergency food rations and I think we should

build stocks of it nationally.

“I think we would have needed to get emergency supplies to

the county because I don't think evacuating the county would

have been a feasible option. “We would also have needed the

ability to treat sewage and bring in thousands of

Portaloos.

“As a country, we need to have greater resilience. If the

dam had gone at Hull and the electricity had gone at Walham at

the same time, how would we have coped? These are serious

questions for the future.”

A spokesman for Severn Trent Water said: “The plan is to

install a permanent barrier but the one that is there at

present is semi-permanent and can stand for several years.

There are examples of these barriers still in Bosnia 12 years

on and Hesco barriers were also used for the New Orleans

floods.

“We will install a permanent barrier but, when we do, we

want to make sure it is properly planned and properly costed

but the one there now is made of pretty tough stuff. It is not

the most aesthetically pleasing thing and when we look at a

permanent barrier that will be taken into account.”

A spokeswoman for National Grid said: “National Grid has

been advised that the barrier has an effective life of around

three years. With some minor civil work, mainly to avoid

rainwater washing away the infill, this life can be extended to

10-15 years. We have appointed a contractor to carry out this

work.”