ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well then, Su Burrows shot to fame earlier this week when she walked up to the Defence Secretary in a high vis jacket and wellies and gave him a piece of her mind, is the polite way of putting it, about the government’s handling of the floods crisis. She’s been listening in to my interview with Mr Hammond this morning and she joins me now. Very good to talk to you Su. So Su, you listened to all that and you basically heard from the Defence Secretary that you had a role in shaping the government’s response to all this.

SU BURROWS: I find that difficult to believe! It’s been a bit of a funny old week. All I was was in the right place at the right time I guess.

DM: And in terms of that response how has it been operating? I’ve been there on the ground, as you know, we met didn’t we on Wednesday. What is the situation in terms of this co-ordination between for instance the military that have been sent in and people like you, is it all working well?

SU BURROWS: It’s been fantastic. If I’ve got to say anything firstly I’d like to say to Mr Hammond, thank you. From my perspective it appeared that perhaps some miscommunication had gone on and something went wrong with the plan. I’m hoping that he knows where that was and has fixed that and it won’t happen again but in terms of getting the help that we needed, thank you. It’s been amazing, from the moment everybody arrived at the same time I think – we had the police, the army, fire and rescue, council leaders in a room and just very, very quickly we began to feel far more safe, that things were under control, that we weren’t putting our own lives at risk rescuing people. The support was absolutely amazing.

DM: But the thought must occur to you, Su, mustn’t it that without that encounter you had with the Defence Secretary, it might not have happened the way it did and you could have done with it all happening presumably a couple of days earlier.

SU BURROWS: There’s no question about that. He said it was on its way but nobody is communicating that, there are … it is very important, communication with local people in that situation, to say not just that it’s on its way but when to expect it. We’d already been told the day before to expect it and it wasn’t there so you do start to think, is it really on its way? So you’re absolutely right, it could have been done with a couple of days earlier.

DM: And Su, just a quick thought on the situation there, I can see the swan there on the banks of the Thames, so it’s good to see the banks. You’re not out of the woods yet are you but it looks a little bit better?

SU BURROWS: Oh definitely, it’s much, much better. We’re still only in February so who knows what fronts are coming our way so I think we can’t relax just yet but I think us as a community certainly have learnt a lot and feel if we get into this situation again – and I’m sure Mr Hammond would support this – we would have the help when we needed it, if it happened again.

DM: Okay, Su, good to talk to you, Su Burrows there in the dry in Staines, very good to talk to you, Su.

SU BURROWS: Thank you.