Mr Watson, of Selby, seems to think that City of York Council and the Environment Agency should be able to stop flooding (Dredging answer?, Letters, January 25). I wish that were true.

When I was chair of the flood scrutiny panel, created to review the events of November 2000, I asked the same question "Why don't you dredge the river?"

The answer was simple. The rivers used to be dredged for navigation purposes, to allow the deeper draught vessels access upriver. Unfortunately, virtually all the freight is now transported by road, and there isn't the need to dredge.

I also asked about the silting up of the river bed. It was pointed out to me that when the river's in flood it is self-scouring, and the silt is moved downstream anyway. The sheer power of the river is tremendous, if it can carry whole trees along, what's a little silt at the bottom? At the height of the floods in November 2000, the flow reached 583 cubic metres per second - the equivalent of four bendy buses - what's going to stop that?

The best way to minimise water levels during floods is to address the problem at source, and implement measures to mitigate the effect before the water reaches York and Selby. A lot of work has been done on this in the past few years and I have no doubt this will continue.

Reversing some of the deforestation in the Pennines will help, as will other measures to slow the flow, but what lands in the Dales reaches York 48 hours later.

The taxpayers of York get a great benefit from City of York Council and the Environment Agency. There are very professional staff monitoring the rivers, and dealing with the consequences.

That they are not visible doesn't mean they aren't working and I, for one, am thankful for their efforts.

Coun Richard S Moore, Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without Ward, City of York Council, Deer Hill Grove, Clifton Moor, York.