Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

FLOODING

Times change, issues change, water rises. All over the constituency, but especially in Plympton and Ivybridge, more and more problems of flooding are being drawn to my attention. This was quite rare when I was first elected 14 years ago, now the problems pour in regularly. What’s going on?

Most of our settled communities have been here for a while and the drain infrastructure was put in by our ancestors in very different days, in some cases Victorian times. Many more houses have now been built, and the whole system is struggling to cope with increased demand by a higher number of householders. As more land is covered with concrete and tarmac, there is less soil available to soak up the surface water to at least slow it down on its journey to the nearest watercourse; so the pressure on the existing system gets greater. Many have turned their garden or part of it into hard standing for cars making even less water draining into the soil, but running off immediately into the gutters and from there to the drains.

Add to that changing weather patterns and you have a structure under pressure. Whether you believe in global warming or not (and I do) there is no doubt that climate change is firmly with us. Who can remember these violent flash foods in our youth and the freakish velocity of the rain? I can’t.

So a creaking system is being assaulted by increasingly violent weather patterns and the pressure is leading to floods and water incursion on roads, gardens and houses throughout this low lying area.

What can we do? For some years now planning permission in flood plains or where there have been flooding problems has been rigorously controlled and rightly so. That must continue.
There are usually three agencies that have responsibility to sort out these problems: the council, south west water and the Environment Agency. There can sometimes be a tendency to pass the buck, (although they have all been very helpful locally when I have sought their help to solve flooding problems) and this inclination has to be watched. We must ensure that sufficient resources are made available to deal with these challenges that can seriously impact the health of a community.

It should also be a further spur to do what we can domestically and internationally to reduce carbon emissions that are almost certainly fuelling this climate change.
What do you think?

posted by Nigel on Monday, January 29, 2007