Flood workers absent due to assault fears - MP

Environment Agency workers have to be trained to resolve conflicts before being sent out, the MP said

Flood workers are not being deployed because they have not completed training on how to avoid assaults by angry residents, an MP has said.

Layla Moran told the House of Commons the Environment Agency (EA) had declined to attend flooding in south Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

She said: "Surely the best way to help angry residents is to be there and help them in their hour of need."

Environment Secretary Steve Reed said he would raise the issue with the EA. The BBC has approached the agency for comment.

The Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon said her constituents near the River Ock had already experienced flooding twice this year.

She told MPs on Monday: "I cannot imagine what they must be feeling. When I visited them in September, they reported feeling very alone."

Moran added that a promised flood defence and sandbags had not materialised.

She said: "When we asked the EA today whether it would be on the ground, it told us that it could not send enough people - not because it did not have the staff or the money, but because not enough of them had completed a workplace assessment and training on how not to be assaulted by angry residents.

"Of course staff safety is everything and Environment Agency workers deserve our thanks, but surely an element of common sense needs to be applied."

Layla Moran MP said flood workers should help residents in their hour of need

Her office clarified that assault incidents had been reported elsewhere, not in Abingdon.

It said: "EA officers are only insured if they've completed health and safety training.

"Not enough officers have completed the training and now residents are again being left in the lurch."

Properties near the River Ock in Abingdon were expected to be flooded again on Tuesday, according to the EA website.

Jon House, who had to abandon his Abingdon home in September, previously said nothing was being done to prevent flooding

Previously, residents expressed frustration at the agency's failure to dredge local rivers.

Jim King from Ock Valley Flood Group said: "They will not listen to the local people. The rivers and the streams are so full of mud and silt."

Jon House, who had to leave his home with his partner and six-month-old son in September, said nothing was being done to prevent flooding.

The Environment Agency previously said dredging was a "sticking plaster solution".