Following on from the previous post on this blog about river flooding generally, Sarah Lunnon, Green Party Gloucestershire County Councillor and resident of central Stroud, writes about issues right here in the Stroud Valleys, and some of the Green solutions now being implemented following her persistent campaigning on the issue:
"As I write this, the rain is beating on my windows and the autumn leaves are falling; and I am thinking about the brooks, streams and River Frome winding through the district and the town.
Where previously the flood problems have seemed intractable, today I feel optimistic, as I think of work about to start in the upper reaches of the Slad Brook and Painswick Stream. Small-scale, low-cost operations will work with natural systems, creating small ponds and 'beaver dams' to retain and slow down water in the catchment - work that, as it builds year on year, will provide those of us living downstream with protection from the 'pulse-type' tropical rainfall that has been increasing in recent years.
This work is a Rural Sustainable Drainage System (RSuDS) and is the result of 7 years of cajoling and terrier-like persistence. I am proud to have achieved funding for a 3 year post by the Rural Flood and Coastal Committee, and funding of works by Shire Hall, with office support from Stroud District Council. The problem of living alongside fast-reacting, steep-sided catchments will not disappear; but this RSuDS project is a big step in the right direction."
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