CHRISTOPHER Rainger’s letter of June 24 expressed concern that the flood defences now being constructed by the Environment Agency for the Clementhorpe area are inadequate and overly expensive, and I share his concern.

Mr Rainger also noted that the Agency employs very few qualified engineers so that it has to rely on consultants and contractors to design and construct those defences and that such a system doesn’t necessarily result in the most economical designs and construction methods.

After the 2015 floods, the Government provided the Agency with £17m to upgrade the Foss Barrier and a further £45m to create flood defences for York.

Your report on January 16, 2021 stated that the work on the Foss Barrier had by then cost £38m and on June 24, you reported that the flood defences planned for Tang Hall Beck, Osbaldwick Beck, Clifton Ings and Rawcliffe could not go ahead because the Agency had run out of money.

I believe that residents in those areas deserve an explanation of how the Agency has found an extra £21m for work on the Foss Barrier while it has no funds to construct any flood defences for their properties.

The defences around the upgraded Foss Barrier are more than a foot higher than those being constructed in the Clementhorpe area and residents there deserve an explanation of why their defences will be so much lower than the defences to St George’s Field on the bank of the river immediately opposite.

Andrew Burnard,

Postern Close,

York