Ms Clare McGrath:

We have conducted 350 public consultations on the plans. We hope that, through these, we will have bottomed out most people's concerns. We cannot say "entirely". More than the EU floods directive requires us to, we have been consulting at all stages so as to ensure that we are achieving the optimum solutions for those who must live with flood risks. We hope that the 350 public consultation days, as part of a continuing process, will be a help to the legislative public consultation phase into which we are now entering.