I RESPOND to Mel Stride’s plea for emergency planning in case of future floods.

All good stuff, but surely that is like watching the open stable door with a lasso in case the horse bolts?

What is obvious to most people is that we as a country — for very good reasons of food supplies and urban housing — have been encouraging land drainage and faster disposal of rainfall from farmland and developments for decades.

MAFF, DEFRA and everyone associated with government policy over the years have been subsidising (i.e paying) farmers with public money (our money) to improve their yields, in improving poor land by drainage schemes which discharge into ditches, streams and then rivers at a very accelerated rate.

Then we seem to have forgotten that all this drainage also takes silt, particles and nutrients with it. This obviously clogs up the ditches, streams and rivers. Whilst landowners will manage their own discharge systems as far as their boundaries it is the Government’s responsibility (EA, Rivers Authority, ?) thereafter to ensure the integrity (and capacity) of our watercourses.

If it is true that we are now prevented from dredging rivers and watercourses by someone (rumour has it it’s the ‘good old EU rules’), then where is the urgent debate and investigation?

We should not just be waiting with sandbags at the ready, we should be dredging our main rivers NOW !

I strongly urge councils that have not yet done so to make it a priority.

Bob Rush

Okehampton