Chief Minister Howard Quayle has pledged the government will do everything it can to cut the risk of flooding in the island - but admitted it might not be enough.

In Tynwald he conceded that if torrential downpours caused a river flood at the same time as storms caused overtopping from the sea, then it could result in a worse scenario than last year’s devastating flood in Laxey.

But he warned the government did not have a ’bottomless pit’ of money to fund flood prevention measures.

’No matter what we do we cannot beat mother nature,’ he said. ’There are events that are going to happen that, no matter how much work we do, sadly, flooding will take place.

’We can never do enough for this sort of thing but anything we can do, we should do as soon as possible.’

Mr Quayle’s warning came as he confirmed that an independent report into the Laxey flood last October - by engineering group Arup - was due to be completed next month handed over to Cabinet Office next month.

He pledged to publish as much of the report as possible.

’I will do my utmost to ensure that we take on board whatever that review says and make the improvements to help those people who have been affected,’ he said.

Householders in Laxey were forced out of their homes after the devastating floods of October 1, when the Laxey River burst through a wall in Glen Road, following torrential rain.

Martyn Perkins (Garff), who had asked Mr Quayle for an update on when the report was due, said: ’It is vitally important that the government does respond in a manner that is seen as equitable, because there are people on Glen Road who have been flooded and they have virtually lost everything.

’They are struggling to get insurance at a price they can afford, some are struggling to get flood insurance at all. They are unable to sell their houses.

’Many residents are in a state of despair.’

He urged the government to act on the report and do ’everything possible’ to lift concerns of residents.

Mr Quayle said a new storm-proof wall had been put in the place of the broken wall in Glen Road, along with other work.

’The previous wall was purely there to stop cars crashing into the stream - it was not there to take a heavily swollen river.’

The Manx Government was also studying UK insurance schemes to see if they could be adopted here to assist the Laxey residents.

Mr Quayle said the government had to address all areas of flood risk, he said, but he added: ’I have to put a marker down that, obviously, there is a significant cost involved. We cannot do every one straight away.’

However, Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) argued that issues of flooding and coastal erosion would continue until action was taken.

’We cannot necessarily afford to wait until we can afford to do these things in a slow pace,’ he said.

He said it needed investment in the island’s infrastructure now.

The chief minister said: ’We could put the very best flood defences in Laxey, where we are putting the best that we can do. We could put them in Ramsey and I know we are looking at putting a wall in and that is a negotiation with the people of the north at this moment in time.’

But he said that was no guarantee that flooding would be prevented.

’If you have a high tide at the same time as you have a flash flood coming down a river - we did not have that in Laxey, a few hours difference and we could have been looking at something far more serious.’