The Chief Minister has defended the decision to give a £500 lump sum payment to victims of the Laxey floods.

Howard Quayle said he would have liked to have given more, but this would have set a ’dangerous precedent’.

Some 15 homes were swamped by the devastating floods that hit the village on October 1.

Last week, the Chief Minister announced that residents whose homes were damaged by the flood will be able to claim an ex-gratia £500 to help towards immediate recovery costs.

But the figure was panned by some as ’derisory’.

Mr Quayle has stood by the decision.

He said: ’I knew I was always going to be slated. But we wanted to do the best we can as quickly as possible.

’We looked around at what we could do quickly as short-term relief. The UK offers £500 in similar circumstances.

’Of course I would have liked to do more but we have to be very careful that we don’t set a dangerous precedent.’

Mr Quayle added: ’Some residents feel Manx Utilities, DoI and DEFA have let them down and not done enough to prevent this from happening.

’We’ve called an independent review so we can get to the bottom of what exactly happened.’

Work has begun on building a new three-metre-high river wall.

A Tynwald scrutiny committee investigating problems caused by the floods has issued a call for written submissions on flood prevention, river maintenance and insurance implications.