The island’s flood defences must be improved ’quickly’ but ’properly’ to ensure coastal areas are well protected says the Chief Minister.

Howard Quayle said £60 million has been put aside for flood prevention measures.

He was asked in the House of Keys to update members on when he intended to make a statement about the work being done to the island’s high risk river catchments.

The answer was of course, ’now’. Mr Quayle told members that following flooding in 2015, a report by flood specialists JBA was commissioned which identified sites of high risk of river and coastal flooding as well as coastal erosion.

It is on those 12 sites, the Chief Minister said, that his government is focusing on as it uses its £60m budget to attempt to prevent the type of flooding seen in Laxey last month.

Mr Quayle said the report outlined and recommended timeframes for the works to be done. He added: ’Three time periods were referenced: short term, 2016 to 2021; medium term, 2021 to 2026; and long term, which means beyond 2026.

’Studies were recommended in the short term for six of the 11 top priority areas. All of these studies are either complete or on target for completion within the recommended time frame.’

The Chief Minister has also ordered for solutions to be identified ’as quickly as possible’ for Laxey, which is due to be done by May next year and he has asked for more detailed information on the other 11 sites.

Mr Quayle said the two highest risk areas, Ramsey and Castletown, needed work ’implemented in the short term’.

Castletown’s wall was being planned prior to the 2015 floods and is already finished, while the Department of Infrastructure is now leading the scheme to build a harbour flood wall in Ramsey.

Lawrie Hooper (Lib Vannin, Ramsey), asked that with flood events ’happening with increasing frequency and severity’ if the Chief Minister could commit to giving the work the priority it needs.

Mr Quayle said: ’We need to get as much work done as possible, but we are looking at £60 million. That is the cost that has been put aside to deal with this. There will be some areas of the countryside where, no matter what, we will not be able to do anything, but in other areas we will.

’So, of course I will commit to making sure that we spend that money as quickly as possible, but it must be done properly and these surveys on how the flow of water goes are not something you can do quickly; you have to spend a while gathering the data to make sure that when you go ahead and do it, you are doing it with the very best data to get it right, as much as possible.’

After being questioned by Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) about watercourses that travel through lands in different ownership, Mr Quayle said his government would be looking at ’beefing up’ legislation to ensure the relevant authorities have the power to access privately owned land and check for blockages or issues that may arise.