Wells: David Cameron Visits Town Affected By Tidal Surge

9 December 2013, 16:12 | Updated: 9 December 2013, 16:36

David Cameron has spent the morning visiting Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast, seeing the damage caused by last week's tidal surge.

The Prime Minister visited Wells-next-the-Sea in north Norfolk and met those whose properties were damaged as the tide reached the highest level on record, exceeding that reached in the Great Flood of 1953.

Sea defences in Wells prevented widespread devastation but at least nine homes and dozens of businesses were flooded.

Further along the coast, smaller communities were hit hard with three bungalows in Hemsby falling into the sea and numerous other villages deluged.

Mr Cameron paid tribute to the emergency services and flood wardens for their response, but said more could be done.

He said:"These were terrible floods and it was a very difficult event but the resilience of people here in Norfolk must be praised.

"The systems worked well, the flood wardens did a brilliant job and the police, fire service, lifeboats and the whole community pulled together.

"This was a bigger flood than 1953 when 24,000 homes flooded - this time only 1,400 homes were flooded.

"But that's no help for the people whose homes were flooded this time.'"

He said it was important insurance companies paid out promptly and people had the support they need to restore their homes.

"There's always more to be done and always lessons to be learned" he added.

"Whether that's personal flood defences that householders can put in, new flood defences the Government should be funding or even better working between emergency services and local authorities.

"You can always do more but, if there had been no defences, some 800,000 homes could have been flooded and that shows how far we've come.''

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who has helped launch an appeal to assist those affected with a personal £100 donation, escorted Mr Cameron.