How Environment Agency fails Yorkshire over flood prevention – Yorkshire Post Letters

JOHN R Goodman’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, September 12) hits the nail on the head regarding flood prevention.

Fishlake would not have so badly flooded last November if the Environment Agency (EA) had properly maintained the flood barrier bank. This 400-year-old bank protects the villages of Fishlake and Sykehouse from flooding. Its maintenance had been neglected.

After the flood was over, the EA was quick to put up a temporary stop-gap in its place. Ten months later, this stop-gap has not been replaced by a proper bank!

Also during the last 25 years, the EA has planted thousands of willow trees between the River Don channel and it’s banks. The reason for planting these willows was to slow the flow of the river.

This reduction in river flow was very evident last November, when the River Don over-topped its banks near Stainforth. Further downstream at Rawcliffe Bridge, the river remained in its channel.

The EA claim that it is obeying an EU directive, which seeks to let the lower end of the River Don return to being a wetland area.

Our local Drainage Board pays £300,000 annually to the EA to allow water to be pumped into the River Don. I cannot see where this money is being spent.

From: Jeremy Spillane, Westfield Avenue, Goole.

I AGREE 100 per cent with the letter from John R Goodman.

The flooding in Snaith and other areas was absolutely devastating, as I saw first hand daily. I drive a school bus between Carlton and Snaith, so I was doing this one-and-a-half mile journey four times each day (there and back morning and afternoon).

For a couple of weeks the water in the River Aire was within inches of the top of the grassy flood-banks.

The day the water broke through was just a few hours after the weir on the Aire in Leeds had been lowered, so, as John says, Snaith was sacrificed to save Leeds.

When the high school in Snaith did reopen, I had to do a 20-mile round trip partly on the motorway four times a day, with the children enduring excessive travelling times.

The whole area was gridlocked each day, as the A19 road north of the motorway was closed for long term emergency repairs. The queue from Drax to the motorway at Goole (about five miles) would take almost an hour to do.

The inquiry into the floods was started by North Yorkshire Council (Snaith is in North Yorkshire), but the inquiry email address that was given out by the council in all the local radio and newspapers was wrong (a full stop was missing). It took some time for me to find this out, as I was wanting to give the inquiry my evidence. When I eventually found the correct address, the correction was almost unmentioned in the media, so lots of potential witnesses probably gave up trying to submit their evidence.

East Riding Council then launched its inquiry (Carlton is in East Yorkshire). I queried with the councils why two inquiries were necessary, when it was the same water in both towns, but I was assured this was necessary.

During all this time, Covid 19 has caused inevitable delays. Will we ever get a sensible conclusion to the inquiry? Probably not. Like John, I feel so sorry for the people who live in these affected areas.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today.

Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers.

So, please - if you can - pay for our work. Just £5 per month is the starting point. If you think that which we are trying to achieve is worth more, you can pay us what you think we are worth. By doing so, you will be investing in something that is becoming increasingly rare. Independent journalism that cares less about right and left and more about right and wrong. Journalism you can trust.

Thank you

James Mitchinson