Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:Spare a thought this week for the poor people in Somerset and many others who are still living with their homes flooded, relying on the emergency services to transport children to school and themselves to work and back. We are so lucky here to have escaped the worst that nature has to offer.
Many years of land mismanagement has caused much of the misery that people are living with now. We are told that flood defences are all about pouring concrete to defend buildings that should not have been built on a flood plain in the first place. No mention is made of the policies that have caused all the excess water to flood in the beginning.
The Common Agricultural policy (CAP) has encouraged farmers to dig out trees and hedges, dig more drains and put more and bigger sheep onto the land. The sheep’s hooves compact the land, allowing water to pour off rather than sinking in and there are no tree roots to conduct the water into the ground. Full reforestation could reduce flooding peaks downstream by up to 50% - really good news for the people living on the banks of the river Severn, for example, who suffer almost endless floods.
Locally, residents living near the new development at Sholden have already reported flooded gardens because the builders have not had adequate drainage plans in place. How terrible that the builders’ profits may be reduced if they have these plans in place! Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.
