Flooding? What Flooding?
All we had in late June was too much unseasonable water in too short a time!The Trent, ever mighty and unchanging river, did not “burst its banks”. Instead, the dwellers living on many of the Trent’s tributary streams experienced the shocking results of many years of neglect.
Why was this? Well at Hull, substantially subsumed under water, the unfortunate residents of the villages and estates around the city found that an “economy” 5 years earlier was the primary cause of their problems. The Council had slashed maintenance work on the drains by 50, naturally the drains dealing with both rainwater and foul water, so most of the damage to houses was due to ordure permeating the porous bricks of their lower stories. What a service to the residents by the local authorities!
For this was the scene in more rural areas, for example at Orston, where the specially created drain (now full of trees) was an obstruction to the tropical rain bursts – and vulnerable houses flooded. Similar events occurred in other villages like Burton Joyce and Lowdham. Agricultural and grazing land flooded, crops were ruined, and animals had to be rescued in dangerous circumstances. Even at Attenborough, where an ongoing disagreement with the Environment Agency about the most appropriate defence is still ongoing (and very public), the local stream overflowed and flooded the village green. The water came from a direction 180º from the defences planned against the Trent. In the new estates, built on or by flood-lands, man-hole covers blew off in pulsing fountains of water, which then forced its way down to the river through inadequate passages.
When will the local authorities learn not to permit building on flood plains, and always to provide drains up to the job – or alternative temporary ‘hold-up’ storage reservoir sites to enable sensible management of the excess water we might well see more frequently now?
Two hundred years ago, every village or estate had a Lee Court or Manorial Court where, each year, the locals decided who would clean out which dyke and drain. We have been guilty of neglecting these duties and have lost the skills and knowledge essential for the proper management of our immediate environment.
Let all our parishes and districts now review every water-course and meadow in their area and report back to the Environment Agency their recommendations for the future drainage, storage, and maintenance!
Sometimes the Environment Agency gets it right. We are pleased to report that their defence work through West Bridgford has attracted no comments or complaints. This is a satisfactory result to the discussions 18 months ago on this subject.
Frank Thomas
