"Flooding Plan needs Improvement"
"Urgent and fundamental changes" are needed to improve flood defences, the report into last summer's floods says.
"Severe flooding was "an ever increasing threat", and waiting for another crisis before taking action would be "a dangerous strategy of luck".
For more information, select the links below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7472564.stm
For yesterday's update:
See the BBC Video on Flooding
For more footage on the flooding in July 2007:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6911497.stm
Local Government Authority (LGA) Press Release of 11th June http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=702027in response to Flooding Report
Response to today's report received this morning from a resident of Northmoor:
"The national report on flooding published today (25th June 2008) shows the stark deficiencies in our current flood prevention and management. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in our area. Your recent photographs show how high the water still is and thus how much we are still at risk should we have another period of heavy rain, as we typically get during the latter part of the summer (never mind the winter).
Right now we are another flood waiting to happen. There is no evidence that the government will provide the money from our taxes to do what is actually needed: long-term investment in our drainage infrastructure (see note below). Until that time, interference with our fragile hydrology by the excavation of huge open-caste mines, development of clay-lined lakes, and building of massive earth walls or bunds must be prevented at all costs. I am astounded that the hydrology model does not show the flooding risk more clearly and can only conclude that it is a poor model that does not correspond with the real-life experience of those who live here.
Approval of the application will just bring the threat of flooding that much closer to us. Let those who would take the responsibility for approving the application also take responsibility for the economic and personal consequences of the flood that will follow.
Note on flood prevention
Flooding occurs when drains are unable to take the flow of water demanded. As the population of London grew, the Victorians invested in sewers to take the extra effluent. We need to invest in drains and keep them free-flowing. Around us there is only one effective drain and that is the Thames. No amount of ditch-clearing will affect the flooding if the Thames is not dredged and managed. A key need is to keep the water low ahead of rain. This is achievable; we need the EA to make it happen."
by Graham from Moreton Lane, Northmoor
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