the floods, the water men and a bunch of accountants....

[tuttle]

Once upon a time, The water board had some very good men, they were the 'water men' thier job was to make sure brooks, gulleys and ditches were free flowing to fill reservoirs.

 

Then along came a bunch of accountants, and privatised another concern, while they number crunched - they asked the question 'what do these water men do?' and decided they could go, along with all their knowledge.

 

So while watching another news bulletin about flooding and 'a months worth of rain' - look a what other businesses the accountants and managers are taking to the cleaners.

 

I'm doing my bit to stop this tide of vultures and sharks taking away all that is good....I hope you are doing the same.

[tree monkey]

if you stop paying your water bills bailiff calls ive tried that.

so i will think of something else its a sham what happened to dredging the rivers so they were deeper ???????

oh ye it takes money out of profit

[agrimog]

more good businesses have been ruined by the "bean counters" than were ever ruined by bad workmanship, once the vultures get there claws in, its the death knell for common sense, all they can see is £signs.

[tuttle]

did anyone watch panorama tonight?

 

shocking..

[eggsarascal]

Once upon a time, The water board had some very good men, they were the 'water men' thier job was to make sure brooks, gulleys and ditches were free flowing to fill reservoirs.

 

Then along came a bunch of accountants, and privatised another concern, while they number crunched - they asked the question 'what do these water men do?' and decided they could go, along with all their knowledge.

 

So while watching another news bulletin about flooding and 'a months worth of rain' - look a what other businesses the accountants and managers are taking to the cleaners.

 

I'm doing my bit to stop this tide of vultures and sharks taking away all that is good....I hope you are doing the same.

 

Water companies have had nothing to do with free flowing water courses since 1990(iirc), this is now the responsibility of the Environment Agency. Gullies are the responsibility of the county council highway dept as are alot of ditches, land owners are responsible for ditches on their land or in some case ditches that boarder their land.

 

Your right about water companies being guilty of letting staff go who had all the local knowledge only to replace the same amount of staff with no idea of what goes on in the area they work

 

Here in East Anglia where the demand for new housing is massive things will only get worse (more hard standing = more run off).

 

In the next village to me Persimmons have built over three hundred houses on what was farmland with no upgrade to the drainage system, and we wonder why we are seeing more flooding!

[eggsarascal]

did anyone watch panorama tonight?

 

shocking..

 

Yes it was shocking. The head mistress who spoke out and would be identified was from a village school local to where i live.

[VEG]

more houses = more tarmac and water getting into the rivers so much quicker than it would have done.

[Matthew Arnold]

A local new build housing estate (less than 5 years old) flooded badly in June/July. The ditches that passed between the back of peoples gardens had been filled with flytip and the grates to stop the pipes blocking up were clogged solid. The EA were swept off their feet so we stepped in and cleared the grates. The DC, Waterboard and EA sent a letter to each household explaining the reason for the severe flooding in the area. Each ditch was approx 2m deep and 4 feet wide and they were overflowing big time. We started at the furthest down stream exit point then made our way back with manure forks dragging the built up rubbish to the top and then loaded it into the trailer. We didn't get any thanks from the residents (except 1) but the EA were very greatful for our assitance.

[Rich2484]

A local new build housing estate (less than 5 years old) flooded badly in June/July. The ditches that passed between the back of peoples gardens had been filled with flytip and the grates to stop the pipes blocking up were clogged solid. The EA were swept off their feet so we stepped in and cleared the grates. The DC, Waterboard and EA sent a letter to each household explaining the reason for the severe flooding in the area. Each ditch was approx 2m deep and 4 feet wide and they were overflowing big time. We started at the furthest down stream exit point then made our way back with manure forks dragging the built up rubbish to the top and then loaded it into the trailer. We didn't get any thanks from the residents (except 1) but the EA were very greatful for our assitance.

 

Blimey, well done you but I'm suprised they havnt had you on some health and safety grounds like they do every time someone try's to do something like that.

[Johny Walker]

they used to have ditching gangs yrs ago ,they went wen it was stolen of us by the fat cat toreis