The flooding last week highlights some of what we can expect in the future. The by-pass was closed, Ebley car park was under a foot of water in one corner - see photo - the meadows seen in the background were also under water. Others faced floods in their homes - please note the Environment Agency have a free service to warn people of floods on their mobile phones - their website also has details of flood warnings and maps of the flood plains.The high winds have also meant trees were down locally - Bread Street and Ruscombe Road both had trees across them - The Citizen reported Ruscombe resident Mel Rodicq sending in a photo of the Ruscombe Road tree - missed her house.
The Government has at last brought in more mandatory national flood plain advice for Councils - it is extraodinary they haven't acted sooner - Greens were making this point years ago - infact I came across yesterday an article from The Times (27/10/01) reporting that house builders had almost doubled the number of homes they were developing in flood zones in a year - this is total craziness: that year saw homes being built in threatened areas rise from 13,700 to 22,800 ie one sixth of all house building!!!! And the value of homes in flood plains rose more than 5 fold to £16 billion. What are they now and how many more hosuses have been built?
Local planning authorities seem to turn a blind eye to such developments even when the Minister at the time said that it would take years to build defences to protect those houses. And at waht cost?? Furthermore many authorities including Stroud ignored the advice of the Environment Agency. The Times highlights Slad Mills converted into 22 loft apartments - but there are also the many houses built on the plain.Photo: Developments at Ebley - now nearly completed
Climate change will mean more unpredictable and severe weather conditions - we've also heard that many of the flood plains need reassessing as some have underestimated the severity of the situations arising.
Julian Jones, local water expert from Water 21 notes that flooding is the result of poor land management. He says "we ignore the model of the natural water cycle at our peril" - he points out how we supply water and manage sewage and rainwater are largely done in an unsustainable fashion - and contribute to droughts and flooding.
Julian Jones suggests that farmers should be largely responsible for running our water infrastructure - farming that uses chemicals exacerbates problems - killing off soil microbes reduces the humus content and the ability of the soil to hold water - another problem is that draining of natural wetlands and marshes to provide more farming land and developments means we have lost our natural water storage sponges.
This all seems to make much sense.
Stroud has seen mill ponds filled in and building on flood plains - The Severn Trent water company estimate their area sees 4% more of the land turned over to hard surfaces each year!!! All this means excess water runs off land faster than ever with fewer places to go. Ebley flood plain - see photos above - plays a vital role in the water system around Stroud.In the Ruscombe Brook Action Group we have, among other problems, seen our sewage system being unable to cope with excess rainwater - I have too many photos of raw sewage in the brook and surrounding fields! One of our hopes in RBAG is to look at some of these wider issues as well - restoring areas of wetlands, replanting trees etc.
In the meantime in my role on Development Control Committee I have raised Sustainable Urban Drainage and flood plains at every opportunity - the Planning department are even altering the way they do their forms to make this issue clearer. I've also repeatedly requested training for councillors re the new regulations - hopefully we'll get it later in the year - in my view these new rules still go no where near far enough - but more of that for another Blog another day!
I've heard it said that perhaps like Noah we should heed the floods as a symptom of something fundamentally wrong in the way we treat our planet.
3 comments:
Noah, indeed! Hmmmm.... well here in Amsterdam we have the crysanthemums in flower from the autumn as well as the first miniataure daffodils out in flower. There should be a campaign to BRING BACK THE SEASONS! Do you remember those Ladybird books with "What to look out for in.... spring/summer/autumn/winter"? Well the winter edition can now be viewed as an historical document of what life used to be like in the British Isles.
Brilliantly put - infact I may have to plaigerise the Ladybird book bit for a letter.
I feel incredibly strongly about this. I remember in my childhood there was a much greater demarcation between the seasons - I could go out into the countryside and identify what month and often what week it was by which wild flowers were in bloom and which were passing. Now we have butterbur flowering in November and many flowers no longer correspond to their natural seasons. The daffodils that adorn our villages and towns are now almost over before what used to be spring arrives. The frighteningly fast climatic shift producing this seasonal disorder is highly disturbing and feels deeply unnatural - as if we are losing a huge part of our environmental heritage.
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