breaking news

[Graham0127]

Beautiful here today......but this is Essex and we must have something going for us?

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I took these photos of the fields at the end of my road the weekend before Christmas, it still looks fairly similar now a week later, although the water is now subsiding and i can see the path of the river again. Lucky for me my village is at the top of the hill, but being surrounded by rivers made it a bit of a PITA getting about for a few days.

[Rory's Dad]

Back in the the early and mid '80s we were improving secondary schools in York and the water board insisted on us incorporating balancing tanks made out of interlocking concrete sections.  We thought they were mad at the time...

 

Rory's Dad

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

There are several reasons for the floods, yes it has rained a lot but, we have allowed builders to build on flood plains. The maintenance of the drainage systems  has not been done as much as it should have, which means all the fat that the lazy pour down the drains builds up and reduces the ability to flow water. road drains are not cleaned as often as they were.

People have been allowed to pave over their front gardens which means that the surface water cannot get into the ground as it did.

There has never been investment in the sort of flood drains you see in the states etc etc unless of course you live in London where they built the Thames barrier.

It will pass and we will have something else to moan about

True; and if you walk down most residential streets and look in the gulleys that are supposed to carry away the surface water, you will probably see a solid mass of leaves and rubbish. When I was a lad there was always water visible because they sent that tin elephant round every so often to pump them out.

[Norman Verona]

Reminds me.

 

When we lived in Low Bradfield we were the last house on the right coming down a steep hill. At the bottom corner, just outside our wall was a drain for a soak away.  It was always blocked with silt. After several days heavy rain the road was flooding.

 

I phone Sheffield City Council. They lady who took the call  wanted to know if the drain was on the road. I assured her it was. Only, she explained, if it was on our property thay would have to charge. Could I just clear it with a stick. I explained that the drain was now under a foot of water and probably a foot of silt and would she like to send the gully cleaner to clear it.

 

At that time I worked from our upstairs lounge and could see everything that went on out side (nosy? Me?)

 

A white car draws up and 2 suited gentleman alight, walk across the road and inspect the puddle and the drawings they're carrying. They get back in the car and drive off.

 

Next day a green pick up draws up and 2 men in overalls get out and walk over the the large puddle. They have clipboards on which they make notes.

 

Third day and the gully cleaner turns up accompanied by the 2 men in the pick up. The pipe sucks up the water and then attacks the silt underneath. This is sucked up and then a freshwater hose is deployed in cleaning up.

 

Now, lets think about this. The drain would have shown on council drawings (or it should have). They could have sent the gully cleaner on it's own and done away with the 2 suits and the two overalls. Even if they had 2 calls out of 10 which were not their responsibility (they could have recharged the cost though), they would have probably cut the cost of this operation in half. If you translate this one small incident in todays public spending cuts I'm sure you, like me, would conclude that Local Authority cuts can be made with ease and still maintain public services like libraries.