Demand for an end to ‘tower flooding’

11:05am Saturday 6th October 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

IT IS surely a sad day when it takes a 77-year-old pensioner to demand an end to the almost annual suffering, inconvenience and expense caused by the River Ouse in flood.

Yes, there are many other areas that suffer but the area I have in mind, between Clifford’s Tower and the parkland and shops across the road from it, can surely be relatively easy to protect from flooding.

We need to build a flood barrier height wall from the bridge steps area to the start of the riverside houses; provide a sloping access footpath, either side, to the top of the wall, to retain access through the parkland to the main road.

Yes, there may be other ways the flood water could gain access to the parkland area, but in an age when we can land men on the moon, etc, these relatively small matters can easily be resolved. Think of the expense saved.

Come on City of York Council, show your citizens you’re not as incompetent as many of us think you are.

In exasperation, Derek R Wortley, Turners Croft, Heslington, York.

Comments(8)

BigJon says...
1:11pm Sat 6 Oct 12

As far as I'm aware this area (the road) does not flood very often at all, only when the river is exceptionally high, and though the park may regularly flood this hardly inconveniences anyone does it? While I agree that it could be looked into to see where the weakness is in the wall between the park and the road I cannot see, especially in these days where budgets are exceptionally tight, where the justification can be made to build a new flood barrier just to 'protect' a park which continues to thrive despite the annual flooding.

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azz70 says...
3:23pm Sat 6 Oct 12

The road did not flood because the river was high. The river was up and the barrier was in place like every other year. So what went wrong? When I passed the day the road was flooded the water was not comming from the wall but up out of the drain. Seems to me someone forgot to close a valve!

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ColdAsChristmas says...
1:14am Sun 7 Oct 12

Yes but come on, these measures are just like sticking plaster on a gaping wound. Reservoir's and run off diversions up stream need to be put in place to keep the water out of the city. All this could have been achieved of course long ago if the Council really saw a cure for the floods a priority. But they don't and £Millions have been wasted elsewhere instead. Simple as that.

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Dennis.Dart says...
9:39am Sun 7 Oct 12

its quite simple CyC are a bunch of incompetent barbary apes

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Jezreel says...
11:02am Sun 7 Oct 12

The sniping against the Council comes from predictable sources.

In my opinion the effectiveness flood defenses in York over the years has exeeded all expectations. Television crews from all over the country were in the City recently waiting for the imminent disaster. A week later they packed their kit and left with all their dire predictions unfulfilled.

We are very fortunate that our city can cope with conditions that lead to disaster and incalculatable damage elsewhere in the region.

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old_geezer says...
3:35pm Sun 7 Oct 12

Jezreel's right, York's flood protection is pretty good, cf. Press photos of 1947! A balance has to be struck, and while Leeman Road defences are correctly being strengthened, factors such as cost of works, cost of flood damage, displacement effects upstream, and flood frequency all have to be considered.

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Seadog says...
6:05pm Sun 7 Oct 12

Naturally one sympathizes with 77 year old pensioner concerned, but Jezreel and Old_Geezer are correct. The situation is vastly complex: we are talking about millions of gallons which have to go somewhere. Every yard of riverside we protect from flooding will condemn somewhere (and someone) else to inundation.

350 years ago we asked the "spongey, hydroptique Dutch" to come and sort it out for us. It may be about time we repeated the invitation!

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PinzaC55 says...
7:12pm Mon 8 Oct 12

This reminds me of the story about Elton John when he was at the height of his drug use and his manager told him it was raining. Elton replied "can't you stop it?"
It rains. Rain leads to floods. Get used to it.

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