Eastbourne MP Demands Action Following Local Flooding

Eastbourne MP Josh Babarinde has called for urgent action after severe flooding has hit parts of the town in recent days.

Roads, including Wartling Road, Whitley Road, Seaside, Milton Road and Macmillan Drive were left resembling canals after being overwhelmed by rainwater. Leaving residents stranded and businesses hit hard.

Two schools have also been impacted: Motcombe Infant School, which was forced to close fully, and Langney Primary Academy, which had to close partially due to flooding. Mr Babarinde has been working with both schools.

In the House of Commons earlier today, the Eastbourne MP raised the issue directly with the Minister (Darren Jones), urging the Government to take immediate action to safeguard Eastbourne’s community against future flooding.

He was also informed that a mechanical valve failure at Eastbourne’s Water Treatment Works overnight led to a two-hour spill of screened effluent from the short sea outfall. The Eastbourne MP described this separate incident as “unacceptable.”

In a statement, Mr Babarinde said:

“Ever since I became our MP, I’ve been pushing Southern Water and East Sussex County Council to work with the Environment Agency to fix this, but we have still not seen enough progress.

I remain extremely disappointed by the years of underinvestment by Southern Water in the capacity of our sewage system to cope with heavy rain.

I raised this directly with Ministers in the House of Commons this morning, urging the Government to take immediate action to safeguard our community against more flooding.

The Minister committed to unlocking funding to help us tackle this, and I’ll be following up as soon as possible to make sure we see that cash is delivered without delay. These failures must end now.”