Ian Anderson
Lifetime Supporter
What we are suffering from here is mainly down to total lack of maintenance of our ditches,streams and rivers. Our forefathers have dug by hand thousands of miles of ditches to keep all the land properly drained, the EA used to keep all vegetation in the streams / rivers cut back , the council used to keep all the culverts, gulleys and roadside ditches clear. The land was properly drained and when it rained it would act as a huge sponge keeping back millions of gallons of water which it would release into the ditches and streams slowly. For years now because of consecutive dry years,EA and council cutbacks all this has been left to ruin, every year you will see council workers blowing all the leaves off the paths and roads straight into the ditch, land owners have filled in culverts and farmers dont bother anymore with the land. When it rains now its all just run off which bounces straight off the land over non existent ditches into clogged up streams and rivers which = FLOODS. Trees under powerlines were always kept cut a few meters below, this is another area of neglect. There are thousands of miles of cables growing through the tree canopies , these trees are roadside and rooted down in the poorly drained sodden ground so now when the wind blows over they go pulling down the cables.
We are paying a very heavy price for neglecting some very basic area`s of what used to be annual maintenance. It has little or nothing to do with climate change.
Bob
Oh yes the old Autumn process of "Hedging and Ditching"
Cut back the hedges and clear out the ditches!
Now come o Bob nobody wants to do manual work like that - perhaps we could import a few thousand Romanians to do it for us
then they will be able to establish when the houses are empty for their buddies to come in and "help themselves"
Ian