It’s time to invest in better flood works (From York Press)

It’s time to invest in better flood works

10:15am Friday 28th September 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

Yet again, much of the UK is in a dreadful mess due to heavy rains and flooding.

When the rain stops and the flood waters recede, the Government faces massive bills and expense to put infrastructure right again and to compensate hundreds of flood victims.

On top of that, transport, especially road and rail, face delays, loss of earnings and inconvenience for thousands of people. Small and medium-sized businesses can and do go bankrupt, and everyone’s insurance premiums rise.

It seems to me as though there has been a deliberate reduction for many years in dredging, removing silt, cleaning out becks and drains and gutters and fallpipes and a lack of construction of adequate flood defence barriers and schemes.

Governments presumably think that this is a way of saving money – but it is not.

If councils, local authorities, and private contractors hired more staff, carried out more maintenance and built useful working barriers, the overall savings would be large.

It would take more people off the dole, raise more in taxation and improve our national infrastructure against ever more problems from climate change and freak weather.

Surely it is time for our Government to be positive about something rather than negative.

David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate , York