somerset floods

[hedgesparrow]

Personally I believe it's a good article & the right way forwards, and it needs doing on a massive scale.

Here's my vote to planting many thousands of trees and having hundreds of miles of proper thick hedges instead of the pathetic unmanaged gappy field boundaries that are infilled in with posts & barbed wire as a quick fix

It's also a great opportunity to get hundreds of people into outdoor work.

 

+1 thank you someone on my wavelenght re plant hedges grubbed out. dig ditches around fields to stop run off from fields. lay and maintain hedges. not just flail them. its not the farmers fault they have a budget and these things cost. so HLS countryside stewardship scheme instead of margins laying fallow to get grants pay the farmers to re plant lay and maintain hedges and dig ditches and keep them cleaned each season. it will not stop the floods but it will help to stop some of the run off from fields going into water courses and may find that they do not have so much wind scoure.. less pesticides needed or rodentacides as this will increase the owl population and the insects who feed on aphids and the like. but this is commen sence which was done for hundreds of years when farms had labour. now one tractor driver to a farm.

also the benifits as this post this will give work to hedgelayers who can employ cutters to help. coppicers would be busy getting material for laying hedges. this is a revenue that the tresury will get back in tax,s

work for ditchers ned no more than a 1.5 tonne machine. keep many busy all during the winter digging out and keeping them clean to go back on the land so making the soil moreproductive. off soap box

[mendiplogs]

Jon has asked, can any one nearby with woodchip get it to the king Alfred public house, burrowbridge, TA7 0RB, they are in need.

 

Hard standing to tip on is available, any help much appreciated.

 

HI EGGS thanks for that mate putting that up it in a very bad way all YOU CAN SEE FOR MILES IS WATER IT LOOKS LIKE THE SEA DOWN THERE NO ONE HIGH UP NO.S WHAT THERE DOING THE ONLY PEOPLE NO ARE THE LOCALS :thumbup1:THANKS JON

[ShooTa]

yes i concur with you there egg.

and i fully agree bar raised land why would anyone be daft enough to build domestic housing on a flood plain is beyond me - take Ruthin last year as an example - the dosey residents were up in arms - yet they paid lower prices for a poorly;y placed house which all the locals still wont touch as its smack bang in the middle of the flood plain.

[Gus McWilliam]

Just seen that no trains are running past Bristol. The parret has broken its banks and flooded the main line.

[eggsarascal]

yes i concur with you there egg.

and i fully agree bar raised land why would anyone be daft enough to build domestic housing on a flood plain is beyond me - take Ruthin last year as an example - the dosey residents were up in arms - yet they paid lower prices for a poorly;y placed house which all the locals still wont touch as its smack bang in the middle of the flood plain.

 

So. I didn't miss the point then?

 

Building on flood plains is inevitable. We are a small island with a growing population. We don't make land any more!

 

The problem isn't building new houses on flood plains. We can over come this by sorting out draining the land before we start to build said houses.

 

Where the problem lies is draining new housing estates on to existing flood plains. I'm talking in general, not the levels.

[SteveA]

+1 thank you someone on my wavelenght re plant hedges grubbed out. dig ditches around fields to stop run off from fields. lay and maintain hedges. not just flail them. its not the farmers fault they have a budget and these things cost. so HLS countryside stewardship scheme instead of margins laying fallow to get grants pay the farmers to re plant lay and maintain hedges and dig ditches and keep them cleaned each season. it will not stop the floods but it will help to stop some of the run off from fields going into water courses and may find that they do not have so much wind scoure.. less pesticides needed or rodentacides as this will increase the owl population and the insects who feed on aphids and the like. but this is commen sence which was done for hundreds of years when farms had labour. now one tractor driver to a farm.

also the benifits as this post this will give work to hedgelayers who can employ cutters to help. coppicers would be busy getting material for laying hedges. this is a revenue that the tresury will get back in tax,s

work for ditchers ned no more than a 1.5 tonne machine. keep many busy all during the winter digging out and keeping them clean to go back on the land so making the soil moreproductive. off soap box

 

You're speaking a whole lot of sense there mate

We've already lost so much habitat, & thus wildlife.... EVERYTHING out there seems to be in decline (apart from buzzards).

 

Just one example; I haven't seen a hedgehog for years

 

Sad times in so many ways & .govUK is an utter shambles

[geoff]

If you get prolonged heavy rain your going to get floods, if it keeps raining the floods dont go away, low lying land with a history of flooding will suffer, simples.

How people can blame the gov, is beyond me, but I suppose we do live in a 'blame culture', well, some do!

 

I do feel sorry for the victims of this, but if you buy property on a flood plane, you really must expect it to live up to it's reputation.

[tomw]

Wheres the bloody RSPCA when they are needed to help the farmers,if horses or dogs were at risk they would be chucking resources at the situation.

RSPCA has millions in the kitty to help,next thing you know they will be trying to prosecute farmers on crazy welfare charges.

Spot on. Hypocritical RSPCA. Take their charitable status away from them for not giving assistance to a once in a lifetime animal disaster.

[tomw]

Sack the EA quango and get the Dutch over - they know a thing or two about draining wetlands

 

Sack all Natural England too. They are a drain (forgive the pun) on the taxpayer.

[SteveA]

If you get prolonged heavy rain your going to get floods, if it keeps raining the floods dont go away, low lying land with a history of flooding will suffer, simples.

How people can blame the gov, is beyond me, but I suppose we do live in a 'blame culture', well, some do!

 

I do feel sorry for the victims of this, but if you buy property on a flood plane, you really must expect it to live up to it's reputation.

 

Dont forget that Government has run for a very long time.

 

....there's not alot of truly natural UK landscape out there; take the Lake District as one tiny example (it's supposed to be covered in trees/ not sheep). There has been a long running opportunity for UK gov to influence the Great Outdoors.

 

But politics is all (well, mostly all) about alpha~male ego and Show Me The Money. Blame them all the way!!