Last weekend, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson came to see the effects of flooding in Bewdley.

To his absolute credit, when I passed the message that he should away stay during the flooding, he did - and when I asked him to come, he came straight away.

Bewdley is an ideal town to look at flood defences. On the west bank, the demountable, £11m flood barriers that protected over 300 properties without, when erected, incident. On the east - Beale’s Corner - bank, the temporary barriers and the property level protection (PLP).

When the temporary barriers were over-topped, the PLP failed at every level.

The number of properties affected around Beale’s Corner has increased due to the higher flood levels, but the economic argument put forward by the Treasury has always been that protecting properties for £33,000 each is worth it, but at potentially 10 times the price per property in Beale’s Corner, it is not.

That is why they have the cheaper option.

Every crisis is an opportunity. Residents argued that the PLP would fail and they were right – at the first time it was tested.

I was always uncomfortable about it and endless assurances that they would be fine proved empty.

So, with the hard evidence of failure there for all to see, now is the time to press for a permanent solution. And the good news is the Prime Minister seems to agree, joining in the call last Sunday to Get Bewdley Done.

Announced at the weekend is a doubling of the flood resilience budget from £2.6bn to £5.3 bn over the next four-year cycle.

Just as importantly is the commitment that the Severn flood plain will be looked at holistically, and not as a series of isolated settlements. Whilst we have yet to see what that looks like in Beale’s Corner, I am convinced we are now firmly on the path to a permanent solution.

In the meantime, I am working with residents to make sure we are learning all the lessons needed, and what sort of permanent solution the town expects. And not just in Beale’s Corner.

Although much of media attention centred in Bewdley, the reality is that there were around twice as many properties flooded outside Bewdley.

All of those communities rightly expect attention and getting it right for Bewdley includes getting it right across the whole of Wyre Forest.