A BBC Ceefax news item that Uckfield was to get flood defence money denied Lewes sent Catlin into a flat spin the likes of which had not been seen since the Relief of Ladysmith.
Wrong names and duff contacts are things I lived with a long time ago when writing for a now defunct South London newspaper. They are still around! "Liz doesn't do floods" said a voice on the help-line to DEFRA. "The helpline must have made a mistake." Of course: this is what helplines do! The same with an enquiry about Lewes allegedly being left out of the South Downs’ National Park "The e-mail's gone". Aha! But where?
The good news is that the National Park consultative process is "now continuing and the period has been extended."
More comforting news in the continuing squabbles between Lewes and Uckfield is that the Ceefax article had been paraphrased. There is not £5,000 per house available to at-risk houses in Uckfield.  The total cash available for Uckfield is £30,000 over 40 houses and businesses. A community-wide flood defence scheme is not planned. Up to £5,000 per house (Hmm, that £30,000 will not go far) is available within the area chosen for the scheme, and it will provide temporary door guards, waterproofing render and raising electricity sockets etc. So not at all as originally portrayed. Although there still is nothing for Lewes.
However Catlin has been given to understand that Lewes District Council may have not told people involved in the 2000 flood that they could have had non-domestic rate relief if their business was damaged and forced to close, and other businesses in the town could have had some relief. If the relief was available, why were we not told about it? CATLIN