Martin has been working on the new Floods & Water Management Bill in Parliament as the Liberal Democrat party's national spokesman on the issue, letting him put Cheltenham's concerns centre stage. He won a series of concessions from ministers and tabled many amendments to the bill calling for changes that have been highlighted by people in Cheltenham since the floods in 2007:

• more steps to protect critical infrastructure like the Mythe water treatment works and Walham electricity sub-station
• clearer responsibility for flood prevention including clearing and maintaining culverts, drains and small rivers and all forms of flooding
  
• encouraging flood management that works with nature, for instance using land management and woodland to hold back water uphill not just expensive flood defences in our towns

On many issues, MPs made progress by working across party lines but on two key votes pressed by Martin, the Conservatives (including the current MP for Tewkesbury) failed to support him and Martin's Lib Dem amendments were heavily defeated:

• fairer insurance policies that don’t offer insurance only with flooding excluded or excess charges running to tens of thousands of pounds
• clear powers for local authorities to refuse planning permission in flood risk areas, where overdevelopment can make matters worse

Martin has also consistently called for more funding for anti-flooding works. Cheltenham’s multi-million pound scheme including Cox’s Meadow did hold back 75,000 litres of flood water but smaller works still need to be done and more protection given to central areas like College Road, St.Luke’s and Bath Road that shouldn’t have flooded in June.

Martin was home in Cheltenham when the June and July 2007 floods hit. Although he had to rescue his own children from a flooding car and lost his water supply along with the rest of us, he escaped lightly compared to many constituents who were left homeless or had their business premises wrecked or lost priceless possessions in the waters. Martin has repeatedly acknowledged the debt we all owe to the emergency services, the army, local council staff,

voluntary organisations including the RNLI, Cheltenham Volunteer Centre and RSPCA and many hundreds of individual volunteers and caring neighbours who looked out for others during Britain’s largest peacetime emergency. Although he has been critical of the Environment Agency and Severn Trent Water, he has also thanked their staff for working flat out to help local people when disaster hit.

Martin has worked with residents in Warden Hill, Keynshambury Road, Little Bayshill Terrace, Hesters Way, Charlton Kings and elsewhere to improve flood defences and is still tackling many individual cases.

Experts fear global warming will mean extreme flood events will be much more common in future. So we have to take every step we can to reduce the risks from flooding and avoid making it worse.