HC Deb 27 October 1988 vol 139 cc405-7W
Mr. Amess

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what assistance his Department has given to private householders to remove fallen trees following the October 1987 hurricane; and if he will make a statement.

(2) what compensation his Department has paid to individuals in the Basildon area as a result of fallen trees damaging their property in the October 1987 hurricane; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Assistance has not been provided by central Government to private householders or individuals: it is for them to ensure that their property is adequately insured against accidental damage.

Mr. Amess

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of the additional expense that was incurred by local councils in the Basildon area in consequence of the October 1987 hurricane; what assistance his Department offered towards these costs; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Local authorities have reported to the Department gross expenditure on dealing with the effects of the storm of £113.4 million, of which some £55 million was met through insurance claims or would have been insurable, or was capital expenditure. Of the remainder, some £30.9 million is eligible expenditure above the threshold on which special financial assistance under the Bellwin scheme will be paid. The rate of grant is 75 per cent. giving an entitlement of £23.2 million. In addition, extra capital allocations of £11.9 million were made for 1987–88. For the current year additional capital allocations of £5 million have been made for housing and other services, for which individual authorities are currently bidding.

In Basildon gross expenditure was £279,000 and grant will be £39,000. The equivalent figures for authorities in the Basildon area (ie Basildon, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Brentwood, Thurrock and Rochford) are £2 million and £0.4 million respectively, and for the whole of London are £27.6 million and £4.0 million.

Mr. Amess

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions have taken place between his Department and local authorities in Essex concerning the consequences of the storm on the morning of 16 October 1987; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

On 2 December 1987 the Secretary of State met councillors from Essex county council and other county councils to discuss the effects of the October storm. In addition, there has been correspondence with individual local authorities in Essex about the details of their claims for special financial assistance with expenditure on storm damage.

Mr. Amess

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is his estimate of how many trees had to be felled in the Basildon area as a result of the October 1987 hurricane; and if he will make a statement;

(2) what is his estimate of how many trees had to be felled as a result of the October 1987 hurricane; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Felling has taken place in a wide range of circumstances. No detailed statistics are available. In the affected areas as a whole the number of trees felled as a consequence of the storm is unlikely to have exceeded 10 per cent. of the number blown down.

Mr. Amess

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what steps his Department has taken to replace those trees damaged in the October 1987 hurricane in the Basildon area:

(2) what further steps his Department has taken to replace those trees damaged in the October 1987 hurricane; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

We have made significant additional resources available for the replacement planting of amenity trees destroyed in the storm of 16 October last year. A special unit of the Countryside Commission—"Task Force Trees"—is administering the main programme of aid in close liaison with the local authorities concerned. During the last planting season £3 million was provided for "Task Force Trees" to assist restoration and grant allocated to Essex county council totalled £120,000. Currently the unit is considering bids for a further £3.3 million of aid made available by the Department for work in the coming season.

Aid for restocking woodlands over—frac14; hectare and for replanting orchards has been the subject of separate announcements by my right hon. Friend, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Mr. Amess

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will publish in theOfficial Report a table giving estimates, broken down by counties, of the number of non-woodland trees blown down and damaged in the October 1987 hurricane;

(2) how many non-woodland trees are known by his Department to have been blown down (a) in the Basildon area and (b) in England and Wales during the October 1987 hurricane; what is the percentage of the latter to the former; and if he will make a statement;

(3) how many trees are now known by his Department to have been blown down in the October 1987 hurricane; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

In total an estimated 15 million trees were destroyed by the storm of 16 October last year. Most of these were in woodlands but an estimated 200,000 non-woodland trees were blown down in the wider countryside. In addition large numbers of trees were destroyed in orchards, parks, gardens, streets and by highways. Detailed statistics, by county and other categories, were published in the recent report "The Effects of the Great Storm" available from HMSO.

Local statistics of losses in the Basildon area are not held centrally. However I understand that Basildon district council estimates that some 30,000 woodland and non-woodland trees were destroyed in the borough during the storm.