FLOOD PLAIN CRAZY

24-07-2007

With the Environment Agency coming in for flak over its handling of the weekend's floods, there's evidence in Birmingham that at least some lessons have been learned. But not the key one of avoiding building on the flood plain…

When we last had floods in June, the River Tame in Witton burst its banks flooding around 100 homes, and local councillor Jon Hunt recently delivered a scathing assessment on the Message Board of this website.

He said: “Some of the emergency responses were appallingly dilatory. Flood alerts were not issued by the Environment Agency and roads were not closed until about 4 hours after it happened, even though firemen were paddling around on rubber boats.

“So lorries thundered down flooded roads, creating great waves that went into houses.

“It was pretty clear the city had forgotten how to do floods. The fire service refused to pump water from cellars without payment on the grounds it was a domestic service.

“Nobody had come down from public health to test the water lying in the houses - and if they had, they reported their findings to no-one. And nobody closed the roads.”

As a result, Hunt helped create a local Flood Action Group, and it looks as though his harsh words have been heeded.

He reports that last Friday, when the Tame was again close to bursting point, flood warnings were promptly issued and roads closed off in anticipation of more severe problems.

“The banks weren’t actually breached this time, but at least householders were prepared and evacuation procedures were put in place this time”, he said.

Witton is on one of Birmingham’s best known flood plains. Flooding isn’t frequent, but does happen ever few years at great cost and inconvenience to the people who live there.

With climate change, there’s every chance these incidents will become more common.

So is the government’s response to retreat from the flood plains of Britain? Er, no.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper suggested that there would be no change in policy, and that they would, er, soak up some of the 3 million new homes planned by 2020 (to see more on this click here )

Anyone who thinks this is sensible would be well advised to check out yesterday’s Express and Star where a new estate being built on a former factory site in Halesowen is already under water (see here )

Warnings that the nearby River Stour might flood didn’t deter developers - but could well scare off potential house buyers.

To see The Stirrer’s footage of the weekend floods in Sparkhill click here http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vK99HW_BU

Should we building on the Flood Plains of Britain? And is Climate Change to blame for the recent extreme weather? Go to The Floods And Climate Change thread of our Message Board.